Cold Truths
by twstdtongue
Summary: Post 1x13: Jughead and Betty have already been through so much, but how will Jughead's encounter with the Southside Serpents change their relationship? *Speculation for next season [Jughead x Betty] (Bughead)
1. Chapter 1

"Juggie?" Betty's concerned voice hangs in the air for several seconds as Jughead turns to focus his green eyes into her bright blue ones. They stare into each other's eyes for a moment, neither one daring to say anything, with nothing but the faint rustling of the wind echoing in their ears.

He glances back towards the group of Southside Serpents, and then down to his own leather jacket. Conflicted, he sighs, nodding towards the crowd of serpents before hesitantly stepping back into his father's trailer. Betty, still standing by the window, watches Jughead come inside with an expression of concern, surveying the black leather jacket that now hung over his shoulders. He stands in silence with his head ducked towards the ground.

"Jughead," Betty pleads again, not really sure what else to say. "Say something."

Jughead continues to look down and mumbles, "Betty… These people. They were there for my dad."

"I know, Jug. I know," she softly responds.

She steps towards him, lifting his head in both of her hands, forcing him look at her.

"But I just.. I don't want to lose you."

"And you won't," Jughead replies reassuringly, as he gently removes Betty's hands and envelops her into a hug. "I know what I'm doing."

He pulls away from the hug and places his hands on her shoulders. "Ok?"

Betty looks up at him and nods. But this doesn't shake the perpetual uneasiness that she feels.

XXX

"Betty, is Jughead with you?" Veronica's voice echoes through the phone.

Half asleep, Betty mutters something that she thinks could pass as a "yes".

She and Jughead were both crashing at FP's trailer, since it was the last night that Jughead would have before having to move into his foster home.

"Betty, you guys need to get to the hospital." The alarmed and urgent tone in Veronica's voice is what startles Betty into a more awake state.

"Veronica, what happened?"

"It's Archie's dad. There was a robbery at Pop's and… Just come quickly," she says quickly before hanging up.

Betty slips on the pink trench coat and boots that she had been wearing and moves into the living room, where Jughead lays sprawled out on the couch, sound asleep.

"Jug," she says as she puts a hand on his shoulder.

His eyes open slightly, but when he notices the concerned look on her face and the fact that she is in her previous clothes, he is jolted awake and begins to sit up.

'Betts, what's wrong?"

He sees not only fear, but hesitation in her eyes in the few seconds before she speaks.

"It's Mr. Andrews. Apparently there was a robbery at Pop's. Veronica didn't say much, but we have to get to the hospital right now."

Jughead's eyes fill with worry.

"It's okay, Jug. I'll drive," Betty tried to say consolingly, reaching for the keys. She knew the relationship that Jughead had with Mr. Andrews, and how much Mr. Andrews had helped him.

Grabbing his beanie, Jughead stays in the clothes he had been wearing. Despite the cold chill outside, he opts to leave the leather jacket behind.

XXX

Jughead and Betty rush into the hospital waiting room, which is surprisingly crowded and filled with police. An air of darkness waves over them as they scan the room and notice Archie, who is wrapped up in Veronica's arms.

"Archie? Veronica? What happened?" Betty asks as she runs towards them. Jughead lingers behind, distancing himself from his two grieving friends.

Between tears, Veronica shakily speaks. "Mr. Andrews got shot. He's…"

"Oh my god," Betty says as she lets out a sob.

Jughead's eyes widen at the news. Betty immediately turns to Archie.

"Arch," Betty cries as she puts a hand on his shoulder, "I'm so sorry."

Archie's eyes light up a little when he looks back at her, but doesn't say anything. They look at each other a for a few seconds before she turns and notices Jughead sitting by himself, a considerable distance away from the rest of the group. His hands are folded against his mouth and his eyes are directed towards the ground. Betty's hand lingers on Archie's shoulder as she gets up to go to Jughead. Without saying anything, she takes a seat next to him and leans over, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

The four friends are interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching. Only Veronica and Betty look up, and notice it is Officer Keller.

"Archie, I'm incredibly sorry for your loss," Officer Keller said, "but I still have some questions that I need you to answer."

Archie looks up, removing his head from where it had been buried into Veronica's shoulder.

"Really? You're doing this now?" Veronica asks incredulously.

"This could help us find your dad's killer, Archie," the officer responded, ignoring Veronica's remarks. It was obvious that Officer Keller really needed some answers. "Do you remember anything else about what the man looked like?"

"I already told you and a billion other officers. The man was dressed in black and had a mask on. There was nothing about him that made him identifiable," Archie retorts, clearly fed up and tired.

But the officer presses on. "Do you know anybody who would have a motive to do this? Do you know of anybody whom you dad may have had conflict with?"

"No," Archie spat. "My dad didn't have 'conflict' with anybody."

"Ok, that's enough," Veronica announced. "We're gonna get you back home, Arch."

The group rose from their seats. Betty took Jughead's hand. Veronica held Archie. And with a new killer in town, none of them knew what the future would hold.

XXX

With each of the friends in their respective homes, Betty tried to get some sleep back in her own room. She was too shaken up to sleep, but she was too tired to think. It was an impossible conflict.

When her phone buzzes besides her, she reaches over and looks at it.

 _Archie: R u up?_

Unsure of what he wants, she responds.

 _Betty: Yes._

A few seconds later, Archie texts back.

 _Archie: Can I come over?_

XXX

Jughead pushes through the door of Whyte Wyrm and fidgets with his black leather jacket as he makes his way through the bar. The noisy atmosphere of the bar soon begins to quiet as the serpents take notice of an unfamiliar figure. After not much searching at all, Jughead finds the serpent who had given him the leather jacket standing by the bar table with a drink in his hand.

After hearing approaching footsteps, the serpent turns around and sees Jughead. "What brings you here kid?" His tone is one of curiousity, not threatening. The dark look in Jughead's eyes tell him everything he needs to know before he even opens his mouth.

A few seconds pass before Jughead responds firmly. "I'm in."

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading this first chapter! There are lots more to come. This is canon compliant and is speculation for what will happen next season. Leave a review and tell me what you thought!**


	2. Chapter 2

Archie and Betty both sat next to each other at the edge of her bed in silence.

"I couldn't save him, Betty," Archie mumbled.

"Don't say that," she replied. "It wasn't your fault."

"I could have stopped it. If I had just been there a few minutes earlier," Archie continued, with his eyes fixed on the ground, ignoring Betty's attempts to comfort him. It wasn't until when Betty placed her hand gingerly on his shoulder that Archie finally looked at her.

"You can't blame yourself, Archie. The person to blame is whoever carried out the robbery." She couldn't bring herself to say _whoever shot your dad_.

"He's still out there," Archie seethed. "And I'm going to find him."

Betty slightly inched away when she noticed the dark look in his eyes. It was something that she had never seen before in her best friend. It was vengeful. Not characteristic of Archie Andrews whatsoever.

"We will, Arch. We will." Betty's soft voice whispered.

At that, Archie gave Betty a look of appreciation, maybe more. His best friend had always been there for him, through his best and worst. Even after he had rejected her on homecoming, she still continued to be his friend. If only he had seen it sooner…

After a few seconds of hesitation, Archie turned towards Betty and placed his hand on her cheek, lightly stroking his thumb on the delicate skin. Betty tried to suppress the look of confusion that was beginning to emerge on her face, but before she could think anymore, Archie had leaned in and kissed her.

"No," Betty instinctively snapped as she pushed him away from her, trying to understand what was going through her friend's mind. Obviously he had just lost his father, but if he wanted to do this, he should have gone to Veronica. He was _with_ Veronica. Not her.

"What are you doing, Archie?" Betty asked, now standing up from where she had been sitting on the bed. She tried not to be harsh under the circumstances, but she knew that Archie understood that she was with Jughead now.

Archie tried to ignore the startled look in her eyes and began to explain. "I should have seen it sooner, Betty. I never should have rejected you on homecoming."

"You're with Veronica now, Archie," Betty started, her voice now escalating, "One of your best friend's is Jughead. _I'm_ with Jughead. Does that mean nothing to you? Do Jughead and Veronica mean nothing to you?"

Archie opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.

"I know…," her voice began to quiet to a softer tone, "I know that you just lost your dad. But Archie, you can't do this. You can't do this to Veronica and Jughead."

"It's just so hard," Archie began, "To see you with my friend, when I know what we could have had if I had realized it sooner. We've been friends for our whole lives. And it made me think, maybe we truly are meant to be."

Betty couldn't help but appreciate the fact that Archie was finally admiring her like she once had with him. Regardless, what he was doing was wrong, especially after the way he had broken her heart.

"Arch, I think you need to leave," Betty concluded, gesturing to the door, "I know what you're feeling and going through with what happened earlier must be unimaginable, so I'm willing to forget that this happened. I'll keep quiet. I won't tell Veronica or Jug. But this can't ever happen again."

Archie nodded in resignation.

XXX

Veronica, Archie, Kevin, Betty, and Jughead were gathered around in Veronica's living room, an awkward silence looming over them. Betty quietly sipped the green tea that Smithers had given her, trying as best as she could to occupy herself. Jughead sat with her on the couch, with his right arm loosely draped around her and a soda in the other hand. Like Betty, Jughead also used the drink as a distraction from the incredibly awkward situation.

Even though they were supposed to be in school, it was Veronica's idea to get the whole group together after the incident at Pop's and the death of Archie's dad. Everybody knew that she was trying to help and trying to get things back to the way they were, but all it was doing was making the situation more awkward.

 _If only they knew_ , Betty thought.

"We're all here for you, Arch," Veronica announced. She looked towards Betty, who seemed oddly quiet compared the rest of the group. "Right, Betty?"

Betty looked up from the spot she had been staring at on the carpet.

"Yeah," she nodded, trying to make the smile that she paired with it look as natural as possible. She knew that she was a terrible liar, and hoped that this one time her friends would not be able to pick up on the fact that she was hiding something.

Jughead looked over at Betty, giving her a reassuring look and rubbing his hand soothingly on her shoulder. She reached over and placed her hand on his arm, keeping it in place over her shoulder. When she did this, she heard him sharply inhale and saw him attempt to hide a grimace that began to emerge on his face.

"What's wrong, Jug? Are you hurt?" she asked, lifting his arm off of her shoulder and bringing it in front of her to examine it.

"No," Jughead responded as he quickly drew his arm back, "It's nothing."

"Doesn't sound like it to me," Kevin added, looking at his arm with confusion.

Betty grabbed Jughead's hand again, but this time with a firmer grip.

"Come on, Betts," Jughead tried to protest, but before he could do anything else she pulled down his sleeve and gasped.

His right forearm was adorned with an intricate snake, the black ink still red and swollen at the edges from having been recently tattooed.

"Betts, it's not what it looks like," Jughead reasoned. He tried to meet her eyes, which were still firmly planted on the serpent that marked his arm.

"Then tell me, what is it?" Betty asked with eyebrows raised, her hand still grasping his newly tattooed arm. "Because to me, it looks like you just branded yourself as a gang member."

With this, she dropped his arm and stood up from the couch.

"Jug?" Archie asked wide eyed, awaiting a response.

"This is my home now. I live on the south side. I go to school there. My dad was the gang's _leader_ ," Jughead sighed, frustration prevalent in his voice. "He may be in jail right now," he added before swallowing, looking down with dismay. "But this gang, they had his back. And now they have mine."

The whole group stared in shock, unsure of what to think or say.

Betty broke the silence. "I'm going to school."

XXX

Piles of papers lay scattered around the desk as Betty ferociously typed on her computer. She was in the Blue and Gold Office, attempted to submerge herself in her work, trying to forget about everything that had happened and was happening. It was 8:00 at night, far past school hours, but that didn't influence her. She still had an hour left before the school's doors would officially be locked. And there was no way in hell that she was going back home, where she would be subject to the scrutiny of her mother or where her friends would show up to try to talk to her. She needed to be alone and she needed a distraction. And frankly, school during after hours filled both of those requirements.

She was so entranced in her work that she almost didn't look up when she heard the door creak open. She was lucky that she did, because when she did, her eyes met with a dark figure, whose face was obscured by a mask.

Her eyes immediately darted to his hands and a slight rush of relief flowed over her when she saw that he wasn't armed, but that still didn't make the situation any less frightening. Momentarily frozen in fear, she stayed planted in her seat while the figure began to approach.

"Wasn't the first threat clear enough for you, serpent slut?" The man's deep voice boomed through the otherwise silent room.

It didn't take her long to recognize what he was talking about. The writing on her locker.

As the man advanced towards her, she frantically closed her computer and clutched onto it, trying to find somewhere to run. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to go. She was backed into the corner of the room.

The figure lunged at her, reaching for the laptop that was folded in Betty's arms, but she quickly jerked away, directing a kick to his shin.

"Bitch," the man grunted before swiftly delivering a punch to her face.

Struggling to see out of her right eye, which was now tearing up and starting to swell, she faintly made out the sight of her computer, smashed to bits on the floor in front of her.

"If you write anymore articles trying to expose the truth about this town, you'll regret it. If you do or if you say anything about what happened here, we'll go after your serpent boyfriend. Got it?"

Trembling, Betty nodded, trying to ignore the searing pain on her cheek.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! The next chapter is coming soon. If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a review and tell me what you thought!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Betty!" A voice called out after the door flung open.

At the sudden noise, Betty flinched, preparing for the worst. It wasn't until she noticed that it was Kevin that she could relax.

"Betty, what happened?" He asked, noticing the obvious mess, the scattered papers and what was left of her laptop.

Betty shook her head, her fingernails digging into her palms. She looked up at Kevin for a split second, then looked down and kept her eyes trained on her destroyed work.

He carefully navigated his way through the piles of papers before reaching her. "Your eye," he stammered in shock. "Betty, who did this?"

Betty turned away so Kevin couldn't focus his attention on the bruise that had formed. "I don't know."

Kevin stood there for a moment, trying to contemplate the situation.

"Why are you here? How did you know where to find me?" Betty fumbled.

"Your mom called me to tell me that you weren't home from school and that you hadn't been answering her calls. She was worried."

"And you knew that I would be here?"

"After what I witnessed at Veronica's little 'get together', yes. I knew that this is exactly where you would be. Immersing yourself in your work. I was going to give you some time to yourself, but when your mom told me that you weren't answering your calls…," he trails off. "Ok, Betty, I'm gonna call my dad. We need to report this and we need to get you to the hospital to have your eye checked out."

"No, Kevin, please," Betty protested. "This was just another threat to keep me from from exposing the truth about this town. He was probably angry about the speech I made at the jubilee or-"

"This wasn't just another threat! He hurt you, Betty," Kevin argued, already unlocking his phone and starting to type in the number.

"If we tell the police about this, the press is going to get involved and write a story on it just like they did last time. I can't be another one of this town's news stories!"

"I can try to get my dad to keep it quiet. But Betty, we have to find out who these people are and why they want to stop you so badly."

"You don't understand, Kevin. If this gets out there, it won't just be me who will get hurt.

With this, Betty hastily made her way out of the room before Kevin could say or do anything else.

"Betty!" Kevin yelled as the door swung shut. He was left alone in the room with nothing but a disorderly mess in front of him.

XXX

Betty sat in front of her mirror, shakily reaching for a tube of concealer. Her hands, having been dug into by her fingernails, left traces of blood on everything she touched. She mentally made a note to clean that up later, but her current priority was on fixing her face.

In order to keep her mother from noticing what had happened, Betty had raced up to her room while making up an excuse that she had been eating dinner with her friends and needed to get her homework done. She had spoken with her back turned away from her mother and had raced so quickly up the stairs while saying this that she was sure that her mother hadn't seen her eye.

Even though it was almost nine o'clock, she knew that it was only a matter of time before her mother would come into her room to check on her. She needed to cover up what had happened as best as she could and as quickly as possible.

She began placing the skin-toned liquid on her finger until she was interrupted by a sharp knock at her window. She reflexively spun around to face the window, but then realized that there was only one person that it could be. Even through the darkness outside and through her swollen eye, she could still make out his gray beanie and dark hair.

Betty froze. The man's chilling words echoed in her mind. _If you do or if you say anything about what happened here, we'll go after your serpent boyfriend._

Jughead tapped on the window again. This time with more force. "Betty, you've got to let me in."

It was only when she approached closer to the window that she noticed the disappointed and concerned look on his face.

Betty was still trembling and did a terrible job at hiding it. Her hands were shaking so violently that she even struggled for a few seconds to open the window. When she finally got it open, Jughead quietly entered the room and sat on the edge of her bed while Betty made her way back to her vanity.

"Betty… tell me what happened," Jughead urged as he watched her pick up the tube of makeup.

"Kevin called you?" she asked, ignoring his previous request.

"Did you really think that you would be able to hide this from us? From me?" Jughead asked, confirming the answer to Betty's previous question. Of course Kevin had called him.

He got up off the bed when Betty didn't answer and continued to apply her makeup.

"Betty, look at me," he insisted.

Betty could see him standing behind her as she looked up, briefly making eye contact through the mirror before looking back down again.

"I just need to cover this up. I need to cover this up before my mom comes in. She can't find out about this," Betty mumbled to herself with frustration. Even after putting on the concealer, her eye was still visibly swollen- something she couldn't cover up with makeup. Her hands shakily fumbled across the products which had previously been neatly arranged on her desk, trying to find anything that would help.

"Betts… Betty, stop," Jughead tried, attempting to break her out of this panicked state.

It was clear that she wasn't going to let up anytime soon.

He placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "Hey…," he coaxed, trying to get her to calm down.

Betty couldn't take it any longer.

She turned around, her eyes beginning to tear up. "Jug, they threatened me! They told me to stop writing. They said if anybody found out about this, they would hurt you."

Jughead froze for a few seconds, in shock at what Betty had just said. She was trying to protect him.

He took her hand and led her to the edge of her bed, where they then sat next to each other.

"You still have to tell the police," he said as he stared ahead. "They can't keep doing this to you."

He looked back at Betty, scanning her face and lingering on her eye, which was now almost swollen shut. He shook his head in dismay and let go of her hand, noticing the imprint of blood that it left on his own.

"I'll be right back," he said as he started to get up.

Betty swiftly latched onto his wrist. "Where? What about my mom?"

"Relax," he reassured as he got his hand free. "I'm just gonna go get some ice. If I see your mom, I won't tell her, okay?"

Betty nodded before Jughead turned and left the room.

When he got back, he had a bag of ice, antiseptic wipes, and two large band-aids in his hands. Betty looked down at her hands, realizing what the band-aids were for.

"Good news," he added with a smile, trying to make her feel better. "I didn't have to say anything to your mom. She was too busy falling asleep on the couch for her to notice my rummaging through your cabinets. I think I got the right stuff, though."

"Here," he said as he handed her the ice. She placed it on her eye, not concerned about the fact that all of her makeup would probably be wiped off by the time it melted.

He sat next to her on the edge of the bed again, opening the package of the antiseptic wipe. While he unfolded her hand, he locked eyes with her.

"This might sting a little," he said before focusing his attention to her palm. Betty winced slightly, but it didn't hurt too badly.

After cleaning both hands, he finished by placing a band-aid on each.

"Thanks Jughead," Betty said with appreciation as she picked the ice back up and put it to her eye.

"You should get some sleep," he remarked as he stood up to leave.

"Can you stay?" she asked as she gestured to the other side of the bed.

"Of course," Jughead replied with a sad smile, knowing that this would be the last time he did something like this with her.

After tonight's events, he concluded that her being around him was clearly putting her in danger. And he would do whatever it took. He needed to keep her safe.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to leave a review.**


	4. Chapter 4

"How are you doing, Dad? With everything?"

Jughead, separated from his dad by the jail cell's rigid metal bars, looked over at his father with concern. He wasn't looking forward to hearing the answer to this question, and he regretted even asking once the words left his mouth. Of course his dad wasn't doing well. He had just found out yesterday that Fred Andrews, a man whom he had shared a close bond with in high school, a man who had given him repeated second chances with his job, and a man who had supported Jughead when he was too busy getting wasted, had been shot. As much as Jughead wanted to avoid this subject, he had to ask. He couldn't leave without knowing if his dad would be okay.

"Not great, Jughead. But I'll manage," FP mumbled, avoiding his eye contact.

When Jughead saw the forlorn look on his father's face, he rushed to switch the subject.

"How long until we get word about your sentence?"

"The lawyer I was given said that I still have to wait a few weeks, maybe even a month, until the trial takes place. It's a long process."

Jughead nodded in acknowledgement, reluctantly accepting the fact there was nothing he could do that would help get his dad out of this place.

"If there's anything I can do for you while you're-"

"You don't owe me anything, Jug."

"Dad-"

"I've made a lot of mistakes. There's no getting around that."

"But the whole reason you're in here was to protect me."

"It's the least I could do…," FP trailed off before changing the subject. "How was your first night with your foster family?"

"I, uh, actually spent the night with Betty," Jughead answered. FP raised his eyebrow at him. "Don't worry, I slept on the floor."

Jughead wasn't lying. After Betty had fallen asleep in his arms, he grabbed one of her spare blankets and moved to the floor.

"How are things with Betty? Things going well?"

"Yes, dad. Why are you asking?" Jughead asked. It was hard to believe that with everything that happened, his dad wanted to talk about his love life.

"Well, I just got word from one of my buddies that you decided to make a pit stop to Whyte Wyrm. Apparently you were wearing my serpents jacket. Does she know?"

Jughead stopped in his tracks. He knew that his dad would find out eventually, but he had wanted to prolong it as long as possible. "Dad… It's not what you think."

"Show me your arm," FP commanded, shifting his gaze to Jughead's forearm, which was covered by the sleeve of his jacket.

Jughead swiftly lifted the sleeve on his left arm, secretly hoping his dad wouldn't notice that it wasn't his right arm. The skin was pale and had no sign of a tattoo, but judging by the expression on FP's face, the effort was futile.

"Your _right_ arm," FP rolled his eyes.

Before Jughead reached for his other sleeve, FP sighed. By Jughead's effort to hide it, he already knew. And just as he expected, Jughead revealed the prominent serpent marking on his other arm.

"Jughead, what are you doing? Whatever twisted investigation this is for, you need to shut it down. If you're trying to get inside information to find out if the serpents having anything to do with the drugs, I'll save you some time. They don't!"

Jughead took a step away from the metal bars that separated the father and son, slightly taken aback by his reaction. He knew that he would be far from pleased, but considering his dad was the leader of the gang, he didn't think his reaction would be as extreme.

"I'm not doing this as a part of any investigation," Jughead explained. "The night of the jubilee the serpents showed up to your trailer and gave me your jacket as a token of their appreciation. They were thankful that you didn't give names to the sheriff, even if it meant a lesser sentence."

"My guys had my back. They still do. But Jug… I never wanted this for you. You were supposed to stay away from all of that crap."

"Maybe it's where I belong, Dad."

"No. It's not," FP paused. "Does Betty know about this?"

"Yeah, she does."

"And she's okay with it? I find that hard to imagine."

"Well, we haven't talked extensively about it but no… she's not okay with it."

FP shook his head.

"Jughead, I get that I wasn't able to be the dad that you wanted or give you the family that you wanted. But this… this isn't what you want. You need a family? You've already got one. You've got Betty. You've got Archie and your friends. Hell, you even got your foster family. But whatever you're looking for, that I didn't give you, you're not going to find it with the serpents. The things these guys are wrapped up in, it's not pretty. It's dangerous and it _will_ get you into trouble. And the next time one of my guys comes and visits, I will make sure that you don't have anything else to do with the Southside Serpents."

"Dad-," Jughead started, but was then interrupted by his dad's booming voice.

"I may be in jail, but I am still the gang's leader."

XXX

"Have you heard from Jughead yet?"

Veronica, Kevin, and Betty were sitting at their usual lunch table, now with much more space due to the absence of Jughead and Archie.

Betty shook her head.

Ever since Jughead had visited her that night, he hadn't been answering her phone calls or texts. It had been two days and there was still no word from him. She had assumed he had been busy with his foster family, moving into their house and switching schools. But two days with not even a call or text was too long, especially with the knowledge that he was in a gang. She was getting worried.

For the past few days, she had been cautious around her mom back at the house, trying to make her suspect as little as possible. Her mom, being incredibly nosy, eventually noticed Betty's injury, even underneath the makeup that Betty thought would hide the full extent of it. She made up an excuse about falling and accidentally banging her head against a table. She was sure that her mother wouldn't believe it, but after Betty had made up that excuse, her mother hadn't said anything else about it, so she assumed she was in the clear.

Luckily the swelling on Betty's eye had gone down over the weekend, so she didn't have to miss any days of school to try to hide it. She still had to wear makeup to cover up the faint bruise, but other than that, it had mostly healed.

"I could try calling him again," offered Kevin, but from the others' expressions, he knew that it was futile.

"For the fifteenth time?" Veronica asked. "Betty, I think you need to go over and talk to him."

"Like, what? Go over to his foster family's house?"

"If he's not answering his phone… We have no idea what he could be getting himself into." The whole group knew that she was referring to his newfound entrance into the serpents.

"I don't know. Doesn't it seem a little… intrusive?" Betty asked, unsure about the prospect of showing up at Jughead's foster family's home unannounced.

"Well at this point, we have reason to worry," Kevin added before taking a sip of juice.

"Yeah I guess so… I don't know. After what happened with the dinner on homecoming I've been trying to not to get too involved with his family life. He just met his foster parents a week ago. I don't know if he's comfortable with me meeting them yet," Betty reasoned.

Veronica gave her a look.

"Ok, Ronnie, I'll _think_ about it. But enough about this," Betty responded, still unsure about what she was going to do. "Did you get any more news about when your dad is coming home?"

Veronica paused before answering, something that she didn't do often. "He's supposed to arrive sometime next week."

"Are you ready for him to be back?"

"When he first got arrested, more than anything I wanted him back home. I cried myself to sleep wishing by some miracle that he would just walk in the door the next morning. But now, after knowing what he's done, I'm not so sure…," Veronica continued. "But all I can think of right now is Archie, and how selfish this must sound. I'm here, thinking about whether or not I want my dad back into my life, while Archie had his dad taken from him forever. Without warning. And the worst part is, my dad could have done this. My dad could have been the one who killed Archie's dad," Veronica sobbed.

"Hey," Betty tried, placing a consoling hand on Veronica's shoulder. "You'll be okay. Whatever happened or whoever did this, you are completely innocent. You are not your parents." Betty thought of the moment Jughead had said this to her earlier, remembering how much it had helped her.

"Archie's been so distant from me. He's barely spoken to me these past few days."

Betty froze for a few seconds, trying to block the image of Archie kissing her the day his dad died out of her mind. She had only been harboring that secret for a few days and it was already starting to consume her.

"He doesn't blame you, Ronnie. He's just been going through a lot," she continued, trying to make what she was saying as believable as possible. "Once he gets back to school, things between you guys will be better. He just needs some time alone to grieve."

Veronica smiled through tears. "Has anybody ever told you that you are the best at giving advice?"

Betty smiled back, attempting to hide the pit of guilt that was festering in her chest.

XXX

"Jughead?" Betty asked through her phone, knowing that she wouldn't get an answer. "I've been trying to reach you for the past few days and I'm getting really worried. Please call me."

Betty thought she would feel better after leaving the message, but it actually had the opposite effect. There was no way she was going to feel better not knowing what was going on with her boyfriend. At this point, she guessed that he was either in trouble or he was trying to isolate himself from everybody.

Betty knew him well enough to determine that it was probably the latter. His dad's imprisonment and Mr. Andrews' death and the swiftness with which he was thrown into a new school district. It was probably too much for him.

After a few minutes of contemplation, she realized what she had to do, even if she didn't like it. Pulling on a light blue jacket, Betty grabbed her keys, on her way to the one place she guessed that Jughead might be.

XXX

Navigating her way around the motorcycles that were scattered in the small lot, Betty eventually found a parking spot. The last thing she was going to do was take Veronica's advice about going to Jughead's foster family. That was a final resort. She decided that she should at least try to find Jughead here before she imposed on his new family.

She stepped out of the car, making her way over to the entrance, which was marked by a giant snake's head and titled "Whyte Wyrm". She pulled her ponytail tighter before opening the heavy door, unsure of what would be behind it.

The noisy atmosphere reverberated around her as she stepped into the bar. It wasn't until the noise began to quiet down that she noticed everybody's eyes seemed to be following her.

"What's a princess like you doing in here?" A man with the same serpent jacket Jughead had been given sneered, smiling and stepping closer to her.

Betty continued to walk forward, ignoring all of the comments being made at her. It didn't take long for Jughead, who had been leaning against the wall speaking to another serpent, to take notice of her.

"Betty?" Jughead asked, shocked.

"Jug," Betty answered, rushing over to him as a wave of relief flowed over her. While she didn't approve of him being here, at least he was safe. She could tell by his expression, however, that he was not pleased with her being here. "Jughead, I've been calling you for the past few days. Why haven't you answered? Is there something going on?"

"Hey Jughead," one of the men at the bar counter called out. "You know this chick?"

Jughead ignored the remark and stepped closer to her before lowering his voice. "Betty, you can't be here."

"Why not?" Betty asked before feeling Jughead's arm wrap firmly around her back.

She could feel him starting to lead her out of the bar.

"No," Betty protested as she slipped out of his grip. "You have to tell me what's going on, Jughead. You haven't returned any of my calls and you expect me not to be worried? You can't just-"

"Betty," Jughead interjected, taking her arm and protectively bringing her closer. "We can talk about this outside." He brought his voice down a whisper. "Preferably where everybody isn't looking at you like you're a piece of meat."

Betty looked up, scanning over the rest of the bar. He was right. Everybody in the bar was still silent and staring at her. She nodded with resignation.

Holding her close, Jughead led her out of the bar, trying to ignore the eyes that were trailing their every move.

 **Author's Note: Thank you for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, tell me what you thought by leaving a review. I tried making this chapter longer, so if you enjoy or dislike that, please let me know.**

 **One thing I wanted to mention was that it was just announced a few days ago that Riverdale is back October 11th! This makes me so happy because even though the hiatus will be tough to get through, I had no idea that the show would be back that quickly. With other shows I watch, I'm so used to having to wait a year for the next season to air. It will be interesting to see if anything I have written is similar to what is actually in season two. I guess we'll have to wait until October to find out!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Betty, you shouldn't have done that," Jughead cautioned. After leaving the bar, he and Betty had gotten into her car, with Jughead in the passenger seat and Betty in the driver's seat. He tried to meet Betty's eyes, but she continued to gaze ahead with her arms crossed in silence.

"What did you expect?" she began. "Didn't you think that I would get worried? After not hearing from you for days, knowing what you're involved in?"

"It's not safe in there," Jughead said, gesturing towards the bar. "If I hadn't been in there…"

"Well you _were_ there," Betty retorted.

A few seconds of silence dominated the car. As Jughead looked towards Betty, she returned his eye contact, staring straight back at him.

"Promise me you won't do anything like that again," Jughead pleaded, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

"No, Jughead. I'm not going to apologize for being concerned about you."

"Betts, please," Jughead said as he brought his hand up to her cheek, grazing the area that had been healing from the bruise. "I can't have you getting hurt again."

Betty moved her head slightly, shying away from Jughead's hand.

"You were avoiding me, Jug."

Jughead sighed and faced the front windshield, unsure of if he should tell her the reason. He knew he had to, because if he didn't, Betty would just keep on putting herself at risk trying to find him.

"The night you had been hurt, I was so angry. Angry at whoever did it. Angry at myself. As long as you're still with me, you're going to continue to get threats, and if keeping away from you was going to keep you out of danger, that was what I was prepared to do."

"That's crazy, Jughead. You are not the reason for that happening. And did you think I was just going to forget about you?"

"It wouldn't be so hard, would it? I'm already at a different school. I live on the opposite side of town."

"But I love you, Jughead. How could I forget about that?"

Jughead swallowed and shook his head. She was right. Of all the things he has tried to do, this ranked as one of the more stupid things. Only a few days ago he had told this girl that he loved her, and he thought that it would be realistic for him to keep away from her.

He turned to face her, cupping her head in his hands, and leaned in, pressing his lips to hers. Betty eagerly returned the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling a warmth that she had missed for the past few days.

The two teens pulled apart, both having experienced a moment of bliss in their otherwise hectic lives.

"I'm sorry, Betty. Not for trying to keep you safe, but for the way I tried to go about it."

Betty nodded, signaling to him that she had accepted his apology. She sat for a few seconds, deep in thought, trying to fully piece together the situation.

"What were you even doing with those serpents in there? What were you talking about? It seemed like you were having a full on conversation."

"I've been trying to find out who has been threatening you. The serpents have been helping me. Telling me any information they know or anything they've seen that could potentially be connected," Jughead responded, focusing his vision through the front windshield.

"I just hate the idea of you being in there, Jug," Betty said uneasily. "Just as much as you hate me being in there."

"I'll be fine. These guys are loyal to my dad. They'll do the same for me."

Betty looked at him with an expression of slight hesitation, but then decided she should let it go and trust him. After remembering what had happened the night the serpents showed up at FP's trailer, she felt better knowing that they seemed genuine about their promise to look out for Jughead.

"Have you spoken to Archie recently?" Jughead asked.

"No, not really. He's going through a really rough time, I figured I should give him some space. I noticed that his mom just moved into his house, but I don't know if that's going to be permanent."

"So he'll have to move to Chicago?"

"I don't know…," Betty trailed off. She regretted mentioning his mom, knowing that Archie moving away would deeply affect Jughead. On top of everything, how would he be able to handle losing one of the only friends that he has in Riverdale. Betty rushed to change the subject.

"How is it with your foster family?"

"They're actually really nice. As long as I keep this tattoo hidden from them, I don't think there will be any problems," Jughead joked.

Betty rolled her eyes at the tattoo remark. "Can I meet them sometime?"

"Yeah," Jughead said, happy at Betty's eagerness to meet his foster family. "I'd like that."

"How about your dad?" Betty asked. She didn't really want to bring it up, but she wanted to hear if there was any progress with the situation and how Jughead was doing with the whole thing.

"He's, uh, a little shaken up about Mr. Andrew's death. But other than that, it's just a waiting game for him."

"Is Officer Keller still pressuring him to give names?"

"Yeah. He's really persistent about it."

"But your dad made it clear that the serpents weren't involved."

"Well, Keller doesn't believe him."

"We're going to find a way to fix this, Jug. I won't give up on FP. We're going to get him out." Betty made a mental note to write an article about the Officer Keller's attempts at bribery. It didn't matter to her if she was going to keep getting threats. If she could help FP by exposing the truth about this town, she was prepared to keep writing.

"We should probably get going," Betty added, realizing where they were and how much time they had spent talking.

"Yeah," Jughead nodded as Betty started the car.

Betty, content with the discussion, backed out of the parking lot, hoping this would be the last time she would have to set foot in Whyte Wyrm.

XXX

Betty closed her computer, satisfied with the progress she had made on her writing. She looked over at the clock, which read 11:02, and decided that it was time for her to go to sleep. As she reached to turn off her lamp, she heard the faint buzzing of her phone. Confused at who would be calling her this late, she picked up the phone, realizing that the call came from a number with a different area code.

"Hello?" Betty asked through the phone. Considering the fact that it was an unknown number, she expected it to be some sort of junk call.

"Hi, is this Betty Cooper?" The husky voice on the other end asked.

"Yes, this is," she responded, slightly puzzled. Now that the caller had actually known her name, she wasn't too sure if this was an unimportant call. There was a slight pause before she heard the voice on the other end. Betty nearly dropped her phone upon hearing the next words that came out of the caller's mouth.

"This is Chic Cooper... I'm your brother."

 **Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! I also wanted to give a huge thank you to everybody who has left a review. They are extremely insightful and thoughtful, and I love that you guys take the time to write them.**

 **I know that this chapter was kind of short, but don't worry, the next chapter is a longer one. I've been trying to figure out a schedule for when I should post each chapter because with the past chapters I have just been posting them randomly. Let me know if you have any input.**

 **Also, if you have any suggestions, comments, or questions, feel free to let me know.**


	6. Chapter 6

Betty stood frozen, a million questions circling her brain, unsure of how to respond.

"Uh, how… how did you find me? How do you know who I am?" Betty stuttered, barely able to get out the words.

"Look, I'm really sorry for just springing this on you. This must be extremely hard to comprehend and I understand if you need some time, or don't want to talk right now, but I thought that it was about time I called you," the voice droned on, with Betty hardly being able to focus on what he was saying. "Your parents have told you about me, right?"

Betty jolted out of her thoughts when she heard a pause on the other end, which signified that she was probably supposed to respond.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Betty asked articulately, willing herself to stay focused.

"I was just asking if your parents told you about me," the deep voice on the other end replied. It was hard for Betty to think of that voice with her brother's, whom she had just found out about a week ago.

"Uh, yeah," she struggled. Her grip on the phone was getting weaker and weaker, to the point where the phone almost fell out of hand. "My mom told me last week."

"Oh… I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was so soon…," he trailed off. "I get it if you don't want to talk to me right now. I just thought that after all these years I should get to know my real family."

Betty paused for a moment. "Did you contact the rest of my family?"

"Not yet. I found your number first because it was on the Blue and Gold website."

Betty furrowed her brow, unsure of how she felt about him searching for her on the internet.

"I also saw the article that was published about your family," he continued. Betty knew what he was talking about, remembering the reporters that crowded outside of her house, taking photos of the family that tried so hard to keep their reputation in this town. "My sister is apparently having a child. I don't know… it just seemed like the right time to reconnect with my parents and real family."

"Two," Betty replied. "Polly's having two children."

"She having twins?"

"Yep."

"Wow."

A silence emerged. Betty wanted desperately to fill the void. She wanted to get off of the phone as soon as possible so that she could process what had happened. Everything was happening so fast.

"Look, I really would like to talk to you more sometime," Betty said. The words were true. She did want to get to know her brother and in the back of her mind she was thankful that he had called. "It's just getting really late…"

"Yeah, I'm sorry for calling so late. It's a little earlier where I'm at right now. I should have remembered the time difference." Betty was about to ask where he was living, but she stopped, not wanting to make this conversation any longer. "You have my number if you want to talk some more. You can call whenever."

"Ok, that would be great. I, uh, I'll talk to you later."

"Good to hear," she could hear the voice on the other end respond, but she was already mentally checked out.

"Alright, bye," Betty responded before quickly hanging up the phone, not waiting to hear her brother's farewell.

She crawled in her bed, trying to will herself to sleep before her mind would start to restlessly wander, wondering about the call that she had just received.

XXX

A few days had passed. Betty had been going to school as if nothing had happened. She hadn't even told her friends nor had she discussed it with her parents. She guessed that her brother hadn't called the rest of her family like he said he would, since she probably would have heard it being discussed in her house. Given how she reacted, it made sense. She hadn't been rude, but she probably sounded… Unenthusiastic? He was probably just waiting a few days until he called Polly, her mom, and her dad. Or maybe he was assuming that she had already told them?

"Betty?" she heard a voice ask, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up at Veronica, who was sitting the lunch table with her, Kevin, and Archie. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Betty responded with a fake smile that she hoped would look real.

Veronica gave her a look. She clearly didn't believe Betty.

"It's nothing," Betty shook her head, surveying her friends who looked at her with a confused expression. Except for Archie. Archie focused his gaze down at the table in silence, looking uncomfortable.

"Ok," Veronica said with raised eyebrows, clearly not believing a word she said. Betty thought that she was going to continue to press her with questions, but surprisingly Veronica seemed to have dropped it. Archie eyed Betty, then looked away as Betty met his gaze.

"Arch," Betty began, trying to clear the air between them, "Has your mom said anything else about Chicago?"

"We're waiting until the funeral. She said that we're going to discuss it after," Archie replied, meeting Betty's eyes as he spoke.

As awkward as things had been, Betty did not want Archie to move to Chicago. He had been one of her best friends for so long. She couldn't bear to have him leave. And after everything that had happened, she knew that it would be tough for Archie to move to a whole new city, one that was drastically different from Riverdale.

"We're staying hopeful," Veronica added, placing her hand on Archie shoulder as she gave him a loving look.

"Has anybody heard from Cheryl?" Kevin asked.

"No, not yet," Veronica answered. The rest of the group stood in agreement, shaking their heads in response to the question.

"She burned down her house," Betty began. "I doubt she'll be coming back anytime soon."

"I never thought I'd be saying this in a million years, but I'm actually a little concerned for her," Kevin said. "I mean… after her own father killing her brother and what she tried to do to herself at the lake. And now she has to live with her mother, who is completely insane."

Betty contemplated his words, which rang true in her ears. She realized how much she wanted everything to go back to normal. She wanted Jughead back at school and for Archie's dad to be alive. She wished her brother had never called her. Everything was getting so much harder. She felt suffocated.

Hiding her hands underneath the lunch table, she dug her fingers into the palm of her hands, willing the physical pain to replace the mental.

XXX

Betty pulled the door of the Blue and Gold open, relieved to discover that it was empty.

She realized that she hadn't been here since the she had gotten threatened, but it didn't matter. She needed to spend her time doing something. Something useful.

Opening the lid to her new laptop, she made quick work of publishing the second article she had written about FP. She had already proofread it and fact checked everything, so there was no need to delay its publication. No need to delay releasing the truth.

Betty turned her attention to the board that she had once used to find Jason Blossom's killer. The murder board was still covered in pictures and information about Jason's case, even though his killer had been long discovered.

Overcome with determination, Betty pulled each paper off of the board and threw it into the trashcan. She didn't want to look at it anymore.

Minutes later, the board looked spotless, with no trace of what was on it before. Betty looked at it, satisfied that now she could start a new murder board. She was committed to finding Fred Andrew's killer.

As if on cue, she heard the door creak open and saw a flash of red hair. Archie.

"Betty?" Archie asked, noticing her impassive expression. "Can we talk?"

Betty turned her gaze away from the board and nodded, focusing her attention to Archie, who seemed to be cautiously surveying the room.

"Are you okay being here?" he asked, concerned. "Kevin told me what happened."

"That was nothing," Betty quickly answered. "I'm fine."

She was surprised that Kevin had told Archie, hoping that he hadn't told anybody else. Although she was sure that he hadn't told Veronica, because if he had, Veronica would have brought it up sooner.

"I just wanted to talk to you about what happened… that night. I really shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking," Archie said.

"It's okay, Arch. You were going through a lot. And still are," Betty replied, her eyes filled with concern.

"I know you're with Jughead, I just…," he trailed off. Betty could see him shifting uncomfortably, and she instinctively wrapped him into a hug. She felt him sigh and return the embrace, hugging her firmly.

He had been through so much, and immediately she began to feel guilty for avoiding him. He was her friend and he needed her.

XXX

Jughead gazed out of the diner's window, taking in the night's darkness, while he felt something nuzzle into his shoulder. He smiled and looked over at Betty, who looked back at him with tired eyes. Her hair was out of its usual ponytail and instead cascaded down to her shoulders.

They were both interrupted by the voice of a waiter and the clinking of two glasses on the table.

"Two vanilla milkshakes," the waiter said, before turning his attention to another table.

Since the burglary, Pop's had been closed, as it was the site of a crime scene.

Jughead missed his nightly hangout place, and even though he had moved all the way across town, once the reopening was announced, he couldn't wait to be there.

The diner was eerily quiet, but that was a product of the fear the burglary had caused. Other than a few other people, the diner was virtually empty.

Betty eagerly took her milkshake, not hesitating before downing almost half of it.

"Woah," Jughead smiled. "Slow down, Betty Cooper. You're gonna get a brain freeze."

Betty turned her head, with the straw still in her mouth. She nodded as she shut her eyes in anguish, clearly experiencing what Jughead had just mentioned.

Jughead put her arm around her as she groaned with a hand to her forehead. He picked up his milkshake, bringing the straw to his lips and taking a quick sip.

"You good?" Jughead asked, looking over at her.

"Yeah," Betty answered sheepishly.

"No really. Are you okay? I haven't seen you do that since… well, the night of my birthday party."

Betty gave him a look. She didn't like remembering that night.

"I'm all good," Betty insisted, leaning on his shoulder. "I should be asking you that."

Jughead took another sip of his drink and looked out of the window, distracted by a car that entered the desolate parking lot.

"It's really nice to be back here," Jughead said, focusing his attention back into the diner.

Despite the bad memories that it carried, it still served as a place of escape.

Betty hummed in agreement before leaning further into Jughead's shoulder and closing her eyes. They sat there in peace for several minutes, undisturbed by anything that they had going on in the outside world.

But peace never lasted. Not in this town.

Betty was jolted awake by the vibrating of Jughead's phone on the diner table. He let it ring once, but then in a sudden movement snatched it up.

"I need to take this," he said breathlessly.

"Okay," Betty responded, moving out of the booth so that Jughead could make his way out.

She watched as he exited the diner and stood outside. From what she could tell, he seemed to be doing more of the listening than the talking.

Betty saw him pacing as he talked, trying to keep himself occupied while he talked. At one point she even saw him step off of the curb.

She brought her attention back to the milkshake that was sitting in front of her and took a few sips, trying to pass the time. It wasn't until she heard the rush of a car engine that she brought her attention back outside.

The blue truck that had entered that diner just a few minutes ago was going unusually fast. A confused expression overtook Betty's face, until it immediately registered with her. She frantically banged on the glass of the window shouting his name, but it was no use. He was too wrapped up in the phone conversation to even look up, and when he did it was already too late.

"Jughead!" Betty screamed as she saw his body roll straight over the speeding car. In her haste, she knocked over the milkshake as she ran to exit the diner.

The gasps and concerned voices from the other customers barely registered in her ears. As she approached Jughead's lifeless body, she saw the car speed out of the parking lot.

She kneeled next to his body, which was bruised and bloody, a nauseous feeling beginning to overtake her. Her hands shook as she reached for his neck, feeling for his pulse. She sighed in relief when she felt the artery throb underneath her fingers with each pump of his heart. The pulse was weak, but it was still there.

Her hands trembled as she picked up her phone. She barely heard the operator when his voice echoed through the phone.

"There's been an accident at Pop's diner. You have to come quickly. Please," Betty got out, her stomach violently turning. She hastily hung up, not waiting for the operator to respond.

She stared at the ground for a few seconds until she saw her phone light up with a message from an unknown number.

 _That was your last warning, serpent slut._

Her eyes widened as she struggled to stand up. She hadn't even noticed the group of people from the diner who had circled around.

Pushing past the group of people, she barely made it two steps past them when her vomit hit the concrete.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to share any suggestions, comments, or questions that you have.**


	7. Chapter 7

Betty sat in the hospital waiting room in silence, keeping her eyes trained on the tiled floor in front of her. She was leaning so heavily on the arm of the chair that she felt like it would snap at any second.

She felt the coldness of her phone in her hand and automatically set it next to her. She didn't want to be reminded of the chilling text she had received.

The room was strangely quiet. Even the slight hum of people conversing to pass the time was absent. The only noise that was prevalent was the rhythmic ticking of the clock. Betty was annoyed at how regular it was, ticking perfectly in time. She stood up to leave the room to escape its sound, only to be interrupted by the shrill squeak of the door.

She watched blankly as Archie, Veronica, and Kevin emerged from it, rushing to Betty with concerned expressions.

"Betty," Veronica consoled, placing her hand on Betty's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Betty shrugged her hand off, keeping her gaze steady in front of her, willing herself not to make eye contact. She could feel herself starting to tremble and tears beginning to cloud her vision.

Veronica wrapped her arms around her into a hug, which Betty returned as a sob escaped her. Soon that one sob turned into a multiple, which then turned into something that she couldn't stop. How long she was crying, she didn't know.

Past Veronica's shoulder, Betty blinked through tears and saw Archie and Kevin, who both stood in silence. Pain radiated through her body when she saw Archie struggling to fight off tears.

"This is my fault," Betty cried as she stepped back.

"Betty-" Kevin began.

"No. If I hadn't published that article about FP, none of this would have happened," she struggled to get out.

"You were trying to help," Archie said in a quiet voice. She could hear the sadness in his voice.

"What does publishing an article about FP have to do with this?" Veronica asked hesitantly, afraid that she already knew the answer.

Betty sighed and let herself fall into one of the waiting room chairs.

"Betty's been getting more threats. There were more after the writing on her locker," Kevin said.

"So the writing on her locker wasn't the last? There were more?"

Betty nodded, trying not to look at Veronica's concerned expression for too long.

"Gosh, Betty. Why didn't you tell me?" Veronica asked, taking a seat next to Betty.

"I was scared. I didn't want these people to go after you, too," she said.

"So you're saying that they targeted Jughead? As a threat?"

"Seems like it," Archie said with a hint of anger. A few seconds passed before he spoke again. "We have to find out who's doing this."

"No," Betty shook her head. "These people are dangerous. What if they hurt you too?"

"I'm at least telling my dad, Betty. The station might take this a little more seriously when they find out that it's not just some prankster writing on a locker," Kevin said.

Betty opened her mouth to say something, but Kevin continued when he saw the hesitation etched on her face.

"I know I told you I would keep this quiet, but this is getting out of hand. We can't handle this on our own. We have to let my dad help."

"Since when has your dad done anything to help? He's the one who falsely accused Jughead's dad of killing Jason Blossom while we were out figuring out who really did it," Archie bitterly spat.

"Archie…," Veronica tried, but she knew that what he had said was true. She couldn't help but think that maybe Archie also felt that angry about her dad. Hiram could have easily been responsible for his dad's death.

Archie's comment silenced Kevin, who resorted to sitting down in silence.

It wasn't hard to see Archie's anger. It came out in spurts, and started happening ever since the situation with his dad. Betty thought he did bring up a good point, though. How much could the police really do in this situation? Especially if they had wrongly accused a man of murder?

Soon enough, the group had become silent, all anxiously waiting for news.

It all felt strangely familiar, yet at the same time like it wasn't real. Like it was just a bad dream.

"Betty Cooper?" she heard a voice call, awakening her from her thoughts. Considering there were so few people in the waiting room, it wasn't hard for the doctor to find her.

She listened as the doctor's quick steps made her way towards them, each step making her heart grow tighter.

"Jughead seems to be doing well. He's stable and has a few minor injuries," the doctor began.

"But he's going to be okay?" Archie interjected.

"Yes he is."

Betty sighed with relief as she heard the doctor's words.

"He does have a concussion, broken ribs, and severe contusions from the impact. But all of these injuries just require a little time and rest, and considering what happened, Jughead got extremely lucky. I've seen plenty of car accident victims who have had far worse injuries. Have you called his parents?"

Betty nodded. "I called his foster parents ten minutes ago. They're coming as soon as they can."

Betty felt a pang of guilt when she realized that she had no way of contacting FP to tell him what had happened.

"And you're his friends?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," Veronica answered for the group.

The doctor nodded and surveyed the four friends, her gaze lingering on Betty's hands.

"You're bleeding," she remarked and took one hand to get a closer look. The dried blood almost covered up the crescent shaped marks that were buried in her skin.

Betty opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, and instead simply pulled her hand away.

The doctor gestured to the door, "You all can follow me. And I'll get those hands cleaned up."

Betty eagerly followed. She needed to see Jughead.

When they finally reached Jughead's room, she saw him laying in the hospital bed eating some jello with a plastic spoon. He looked pale and was covered in purple bruises, and his signature grey beanie was nowhere to be found.

"Jughead," Betty said as she entered the room.

His tired eyes flicked over to her, and when he caught sight of her a smile emerged on his face.

"Hey guys," he said weakly when he noticed that not only Betty was in the room, but also the rest of his friends.

Jughead sat up as Betty walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. When he drew in a sharp breath, she backed away and saw a grimace on his face.

"Sorry, I forgot-" Betty began, remembering that he had several broken ribs.

"It's okay," Jughead replied warmly.

"We're all happy you're okay, Jug," Archie said as he walked over to the other side of the bed. The rest of his friends nodded in agreement.

He made eye contact with Betty, who, from what he could tell, had started to slightly tremble and had a troubled look on her face. The way her eyes began to water made it clear that she was barely holding it together.

"Hey…," Jughead said softly as he took hold of her arm. "Everything's okay."

Betty shook her head. "It's not. When I saw that car coming towards you, I thought-"

"Whatever that guy tried to do, he failed. I got away alive. Not completely unscathed. But alive. And I have some pretty nice battle scars to prove it," he said smiling, holding up his bruised arm.

Betty gave him a disapproving look as if to say "not funny".

"Whatever that guy tried to do happened because of me. I should have never published that article about your dad. They tried to hurt you to get to me," she said.

"I figured this was another threat," Jughead started. "But you can't blame yourself for this. None of this is your fault."

Secretly he was glad that instead of hurting Betty, they had targeted him.

"I'm going to find out who did this, Jug. We all are," Betty said with determination, looking back at her friends.

Jughead opened his mouth to protest.

"There's strength in numbers," Veronica added. "And if we were the ones who were able to uncover the truth about Jason Blossom, then we can do this."

"I just don't want anybody else to get hurt," Jughead responded.

A few seconds later, a nurse entered the room with some gauze and antiseptic.

"This will just take a few seconds," she softly replied as she took Betty to the table that was situated in the corner of the room. Betty stood awkwardly as the nurse cleaned her hands.

The rest of the group didn't say anything about it and instead were having conversations while they waited for the nurse to be finished. Everyone except for Jughead had assumed that her hands had somehow gotten scratched during the incident at the diner.

Jughead silently watched with an uneasy expression as the nurse wrapped her hands. Betty looked back at him and shook her head slightly before the nurse gathered her equipment and left the room.

Betty flinched when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. A notification flashed across the screen.

 _1 missed call from Chic Cooper_

She looked at the screen quickly before shoving the phone back in her pocket. She had hoped nobody would notice her reaction, but when she looked up she saw everybody's eyes on her.

"Who was that?" Kevin asked.

"It was my mom," Betty lied. "She was probably just wondering what time I'm getting home."

Jughead looked skeptical. If it was just her mom, why hadn't she answered the phone? He decided to let it go for now.

"So, Jughead. How long do you have to stay here?" Veronica asked, changing the subject.

"I have to stay overnight for observation, but I'll be discharged tomorrow. Guess the hospital can't do much about broken ribs and a concussion. But once I get home I'll have to take a week or two off to rest before I can get back to school."

"That's right," the doctor said as she reentered the room, as if on cue. "And no physical activity for four weeks to give everything a chance to heal."

"We should probably get going," Kevin said a few seconds later, turning towards Jughead. "Your foster parents should be here soon, and you should get your rest."

While the group filed out of the room, Betty gave Jughead a quick kiss before following suit. All she wanted to do right now was figure out who was responsible for everything that's been happening in Riverdale, but for now, all she knew she could do was go to sleep and hope that tomorrow would be a better day.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to share.**


	8. Chapter 8

"I tried to get out of it. I'm sorry," Veronica explained to Archie, Betty, and Jughead, who were sitting in a booth at Pop's. A few days had passed since Jughead got released at the hospital and he was feeling a lot better, enough to go have breakfast with his friends.

"So your dad wants us to come over for dinner? Why?" Betty asked.

"He told me that he felt like he missed so much when he was in jail. He said he wants to meet my new friends," Veronica explained.

"This all seems a little… odd. I mean, you said he just came home yesterday from jail," Jughead said as he glanced at Archie, who seemed to be lost in thought.

"It's weird. I'll admit that," Veronica started. "And Archie, you don't have to go if you don't want to."

Everybody knew that Hiram could very well have been responsible for the murder of Fred Andrews.

"It's okay. I'll be there," Archie said.

A few seconds passed before anybody said anything.

"Maybe this is a good thing," Betty said. "If your dad is as guilty as he looks, maybe there's something that would help us prove it somewhere in the house."

Veronica opened her mouth in protest. "No. We are not going to go through his things. Besides, he just moved in yesterday. Aside from a few boxes of his stuff from New York, there isn't much to look through anyways."

The rest of the group sat in silence, looking down and keeping their gaze on the table in front of them.

"Seriously? If he is who we think he is, then how do you think he would react to someone going through his things? It's too dangerous," Veronica said.

"That's why the dinner is a good distraction," Betty tried. "I could easily excuse myself and come back in like nothing happened. He'll never know."

Jughead glanced at Betty, concerned at her suggestion of directly including herself in a plan as dangerous as this one.

"I don't want any of you involved. Maybe in a few days once he's more settled in, I can find a time to sneak into his office. But for now, nobody is doing anything except for having dinner tonight," Veronica concluded.

As the group got up to leave, Betty stayed sitting at the booth while Jughead waited at the edge of the table. She took Jughead's hand and pulled it down, getting him to sit.

"We're getting into Hiram's office tonight," Betty softly said so that the rest of her friends who had gotten up couldn't hear.

It took Jughead a few seconds before he nodded in agreement.

XXX

Betty took a sip of coffee and eyed the man who sat in front of her suspiciously. She was sitting opposite of her alleged brother, Chic Cooper, who oddly enough seemed to share the family's blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin.

He had asked her to come meet with her for coffee at the town's small cafe to talk, an offer which Betty reluctantly accepted. She still didn't really know who this person was, but she also couldn't help but feel curious. Maybe if she knew that he was in fact her brother, she would tell her family and friends, but for right now she was keeping her mouth shut.

"Thanks for meeting me here, Betty," Chic said.

"Yeah, thanks for inviting me," Betty replied calmly, in an attempt to make herself sound less suspicious. She took another sip of coffee to distract herself.

"I know it must be strange for me to appear out of nowhere, but to be truthful, I was thinking about contacting your family for a few months now."

"So why didn't you?" Betty asked in a level tone.

"I tried, but I could never bring myself to do it. I never knew if I was ready to face meeting my real family. Your parents gave me up for a adoption. I didn't think they would ever want to see me again. But when I heard about your sister being pregnant, I knew I had to contact your family."

"Well have you? Contacted the rest of my family? Because it seems like I am the only one you've spoken to," Betty responded, trying her hardest to remain calm.

"I haven't. I wanted to and was planning on calling them right after I contacted you, but after hearing your voice on the phone I couldn't do it. It was too overwhelming. I mean, I heard my sister's voice for the first time," Chic continued. "What I want to know is why you haven't told your family about me? I thought you would have by now."

Betty sighed. She really didn't think she knew the answer to this question. It seemed like there really was no reason. She had gotten so used to lying to her parents and covering things up.

"It just seemed like something that they should hear from you," Betty answered.

Chic nodded in appreciation. "Thank you for understanding."

Betty furrowed her brow at his last remark. She realized that she was anything but understanding. She didn't even know if who she was talking to was telling the truth.

"How do I know you're really my brother," Betty suddenly blurted out.

Chic didn't look shocked at the question. "I thought you were going to ask me that," he said, taking out his phone. "Here."

Betty took his phone and looked at the picture that glowed on the screen. It seemed to be a picture that he took of his ID. After look at it for a few minutes, all the information on there seemed to be correct, and Betty noticed that his age was 24, which seemed to line up with what her mom had told her. I guess he is actually my brother, Betty thought.

"I'm sorry I asked," Betty said, handing her brother back his phone.

"No, it's really no problem. My call came out of nowhere. And with everything that's been going on in this town, of course you were going to be suspicious of me."

"So you've heard about what's been happening here?"

"Yeah. It's hard to miss. It's all over the newspapers," Chic replied.

"Well, I should get going. I'm having dinner with my friend Veronica tonight, but if you want to talk some more, I'll be free to talk on the phone after eight," Betty said as she picked up her coffee and stood up to leave.

"I think I'm good, but thanks for the offer. It was nice to finally meet you," Chic responded.

"You too," Betty said before leaving the cafe, still unsure about how she felt. She couldn't worry about that now though. All she could focus on was her plan for tonight at the Lodge's dinner.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to share. Thanks so much again for all of the feedback that you give. I really appreciate it.**


	9. Chapter 9

Betty slid on her signature necklace before hearing the familiar knock at her window. She turned and smiled as soon as she caught a glimpse of Jughead. Making her way to the window, she eagerly pushed it opened.

"You ready?" Jughead asked as he climbed in.

"Just about," Betty replied as she took one last look in her mirror, checking her reflection while Jughead took a seat at the edge of her bed.

"Betty, are you sure about tonight?"

"I'm sure," she said as she turned to face Jughead.

"It's just hard for me to believe that this dinner is about Hiram wanting to get to know his daughter's friends," Jughead said as he contemplatively stared at the ground.

"I agree. It's probably not about that. But I can't just sit around and do nothing. We have to find out if he's hiding anything."

Jughead nodded. "Promise me you'll be careful."

Betty looked back at him lovingly.

"I promise," she said as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"And," Jughead continued. "Promise me that you'll let me help."

"You are helping," Betty said, still unaware of what Jughead was asking.

"I want to help you search in his office."

Betty moved her head off of his shoulder and met his eyes.

"I thought you were going to talk to Hiram. Distract him."

"Archie and Veronica can handle that."

"Did you tell them about this?"

"No, of course not. But I'm pretty sure that they'll know what we're doing once it happens. From what they said earlier, they know that you wanted to go through his things. They won't let anything bad happen. And if I'm in there with you, we can search the place twice as fast."

"I don't know, Jughead. It was my idea, and if something does happen, I don't want you to get in trouble."

Betty was right. Jughead already has a police record. If he got caught snooping through somebody like Hiram's stuff, it would not look good.

Jughead sighed. "Okay. I'll distract him. But you have to be in and out of there in just a few minutes. If you take too long, he'll get suspicious."

Betty nodded and leaned against Jughead again, savoring the few minutes of peace.

XXX

"So, what are is everybody involved in at school?" The question that left Mr. Lodge's mouth stirred up an uneasy feeling. Everybody who was sitting at the table didn't expect such a question to come from a person who had been deemed as being incredibly dangerous. It was weird to hear a man who had sent people to destroy Fred's construction project and who had threatened his daughter ask about his daughter's friends' extracurriculars in school.

The dinner had been nothing but casual conversation. Mostly Hiram had been asking Veronica's friends questions, and oddly enough he seemed genuine.

Betty struggled to find the meaning in this dinner. It was hard for her to believe that this dinner was purely meant for a man like Hiram to get to know his daughter's friends. From what she had heard about what he's done, it was very uncharacteristic of him.

"Betty works for the school newspaper. It's called the Blue and Gold," Veronica answered for Betty after an extended silence and uneasy glances had overwhelmed the conversation.

"How is that?" Hiram asked he turned towards Betty, with his eyebrows lifted and his lips slightly curled up at the ends.

Betty paused, trying to maintain her composure. "I'm not quite sure what you mean…," she trailed off.

"Well, what I mean is, how does it feel to have the power to uncover people's secrets and report them out to the world?"

"It's a school newspaper, I don't do much of that. I write mostly trivial pieces about- I don't know- the school's football team," Betty said as she took a glass of water in her hands.

"That's strange that you put it that way…," Hiram continued. "I've read what you've written about the events that have occurred in this town. Specifically about Jason Blossom's murder. You're a very gifted writer. Your work is very insightful."

Betty glanced uneasily at Jughead, who took her hand under the table and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"All I do is tell the truth," she replied calmly.

For a few seconds, there wasn't a sound in the room except for the clinking of silverware on plates.

"And Archie, I'm incredibly saddened to hear about what happened to your father," Hiram looked towards Archie.

Archie made eye contact with him and nodded slightly, unable to find the words he wanted to say.

"I've talked to mayor McCoy. They're doing everything they can to find the culprit," Hiram stated.

"That's good," Archie said, surprising his friends. "I just hope they're looking in the right places."

Archie's icy stare towards Hiram was hard to mistake. Everybody at the table knew that remark was directed at him, but nobody dared to say anything. Hiram looked back at Archie and gave a small smile, as if what Archie said didn't bother him.

"How about I go get dessert," Hermione added with a hesitant smile before leaving to go to the kitchen.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Betty declared as she stood up from her chair. "Can somebody please show me where it is?"

Betty already knew where the bathroom was, but at least if she asked it would make it look less suspicious.

"Sure, I can," Veronica said after her eyes flickered with realization as it dawned on her what Betty was trying to do. Betty wouldn't ask anybody to show her where the bathroom is, she already knew.

"Perfect," Betty replied as she followed Veronica's lead out of the dining room.

After they had made their way far enough from the dining room, Veronica spun around.

"Betty, what do you think you're doing?"

"Veronica…," Betty whispered, looking back nervously as if her time was running out.

"I thought we went over this," Veronica said quietly.

"I know, I just… please let me do this," she pleaded.

Veronica's jaw tightened. "Okay, but you have three minutes before you have to come back. And his office is down the hall to your right."

"Got it," Betty said as she started towards the office.

A medium sized cardboard box was placed off to the side on a large mahogany desk, which was otherwise spotless. As she expected, the room wasn't very full of much of anything since Hiram had just moved in. Betty began to dig through the box, which was filled with nothing but picture frames of Veronica and her mother.

She started searching the inside of the desk, opening drawers which were virtually empty, until she froze. Footsteps were heading towards the room. She quickly ducked underneath the desk as the color drained from her face.

"Betty?" A familiar voice whispered.

"Jughead?" Betty hissed as she emerged from underneath the desk. "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry. I told everybody that I was just going to check on you, since you've been 'in the bathroom' for so long," Jughead said.

Betty rolled her eyes, but knew that she probably should have been back by now.

"As for Veronica's dad, he's on the phone right now. It seemed pretty urgent. That might buy us some time," Jughead continued. "Did you find anything?"

"Not yet," Betty said as she surveyed the room. It took her a minute of searching before her eyes lip up. She didn't know how she didn't see this before. In the corner of the room, atop a bookshelf, there was a small locked box. "Jughead, there's a safe."

Betty started towards it, until she felt Jughead pull her back underneath the desk. She opened her mouth to speak, until she saw him put a finger to his mouth, gesturing at her to be quiet.

They both huddled underneath the desk in fear while they heard Hiram's voice and footsteps, getting closer and closer. Betty shakily put a hand to her mouth, trying so hard not to make a sound that she was barely breathing.

The door to the office swung open.

"Did anybody try to stop it?" Hiram's furious voice boomed as he spoke through the phone. A few moments went by as he listened to the response, while making his way over to the locked box that Betty had discovered.

Jughead peered through an opening in the desk, watching as Hiram dug a small silver key out of his pocket.

"How could you let this happen? It's been two days and already people are messing with our things?"

Both Betty and Jughead heard the small click that came from Hiram opening the safe. It seemed like he immediately got what he was looking for, because in a matter of seconds, he shut the door to the safe and locked it.

"So we have absolutely no idea who it could be?" Hiram's angry voice continued on as he opened the door.

Jughead looked to the side of the desk and caught a glimpse of Hiram leaving. His eyes widened when he noticed the gun in his hand.

Once he seemed to be gone for good, Betty and Jughead both a let out a sigh of relief before standing up. Betty walked over and tried to open the safe, but to no avail. Hiram had locked it.

"Betts," Jughead began, as he watched her struggle to open the safe. "We've got to go."

She squeezed her eyes shut before nodding and followed Jughead out the door.

"If only we could see what's in that locked box," Betty whispered as they made their way back towards the dining room. Jughead stopped and guided Betty to the side of the hallway.

"Whatever he was talking about, did not seem good," Jughead began. "As he was leaving, I saw a gun in his hand."

"What?" Betty's jaw dropped.

"I have to admit, that coupled with the phone call looks a little suspicious. But we're talking about Hiram. It's not out of the ordinary for somebody like him to have a gun," Jughead said quietly.

"You're right. We'll talk about this later," Betty said, as she and Jughead started towards the dining room again.

They stayed silent as entered the dining room, where puzzled glances from Hermione, Archie, and Veronica followed them. Betty tried her hardest not to make eye contact with Archie or Veronica.

"Is everything okay?" Hermione asked as her brows knitted. There was something off about her demeanor, however. Her troubled expression hinted that maybe she had heard part of Hiram's phone call.

"I'm all good," Betty smiled. "I just feel a little sick to my stomach. Do you mind if Jughead and I take off?"

"That's no problem. Mr. Lodge also left, too," Hermione said. "I can give you some cookies for you to take home if you would like?"

Betty looked down at the table, where a plate of chocolate chip cookies were situated that were meant for dessert.

"That's okay, thanks for the offer, though," Betty responded. "I'm sorry we couldn't stay to the end. This dinner was really nice though. Thank you for inviting us."

"It was really Hiram's idea, but you're welcome," Hermione said as she stood up and led Betty and Jughead to the door. "Thanks for coming. Have a good night."

"You too," Jughead and Betty said at the same time as Hermione closed the door.

"I'll call my foster parents to come pick us up, if you want," Jughead suggested as they walked down the driveway.

It was strangely dark outside, which Betty found oddly comforting.

"Sure," Betty replied absentmindedly, preoccupied by the dark vehicle that was situated on the street close to the Lodge's driveway.

"Was this car here before?" Betty asked as they got closer to it.

"I'm not sure," Jughead said as he put an arm around her and took out his phone to call his foster parents.

They were about ten feet from the car when Betty saw the window lower.

"Betty?" A newly familiar voice asked.

Betty froze.

"Chic? What the hell are you doing here?"

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.**


	10. Chapter 10

Betty shivered and folded her arms over her chest as the cool night air brushed past her. The slight hum of the car engine did little to mask the silence that took over the situation.

"Betty, what's going on?" Jughead asked in a low tone, willing her to make eye contact with him. "Do you know this guy?"

Struggling to meet his eyes, Betty opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She kept her eyes trained on her brother and heard the car door unlock.

"Do you both need a ride?" Chic asked, not even bothering to address Betty's previous question.

"Not until you tell me why you're here. How did you even know I was here?" Betty demanded.

Jughead could feel Betty trembling next to him. Whether it was from being cold, angry, or afraid, he couldn't tell.

"Look," Chic began, "Earlier today, you said you were going to your friend Veronica's house. It didn't take me long to figure out that you meant Veronica Lodge. Betty, do you know how dangerous her father is?"

"I know who Hiram Lodge is," Betty replied quietly. "Did you follow me here?"

"No of course not," Chic said. "I wouldn't do that. I knew where the Lodge's lived because it's common knowledge in this town. All I had to do was ask the first person I saw."

"Betty…," Jughead tried.

She looked back at him, preparing to speak, but was cut off by Chic.

"I know this looks weird. But all I wanted to do was make sure you got out of that house okay. And you did. So I'll leave right now if you want, but it seems like you both need a ride and I'd be happy to give you one if you want," Chic offered.

"We aren't getting in anybody's car until I know who you are," Jughead said.

Chic's eyes met Betty's for a second before making their way over to Jughead.

"She didn't tell you?" Chic asked.

Jughead shook his head.

"I'm her brother."

XXX

"I should have told you," Betty said as she made her way to the porch, sitting down on the top step. She had been wanting to say that the whole miserable car ride to her house, but she couldn't will herself to speak, especially in the deafening silence that filled the car.

"You should have," Jughead admitted. He understood that it was her family business, but at the same time he didn't know how he felt about her brother. Something about the whole situation was off. It seemed to him like the situation was a lot more complicated than Betty knew. "How long have you been talking to him?"

"I don't know, a few weeks I guess," Betty replied as Jughead took a seat next to her on the porch steps.

"How did he even make contact with you? He clearly doesn't live in Riverdale…"

"He called me."

"Just out of the blue?" Jughead asked.

"Yeah," Betty nodded. "But what else was he supposed to do?"

"I don't know, maybe make contact with your parents and arrange to meet them," Jughead said. "Do your parents even know?"

"Not yet," Betty said. "He said that he would tell them when he feels ready."

Jughead furrowed his eyebrows.

"What?" Betty asked, taking notice of his facial expression.

Jughead met her eyes, with hesitation etched on his face. He didn't want to upset Betty.

"I just… I feel like maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do," Jughead said. "How well do you really know him?"

"Not well at all, Jughead. I just met him," Betty said, frustrated. "What are you trying to say?"

"Don't you think that it's strange that out of all the times he could show up, he shows up now?" Jughead asked.

"I doubt that means anything," Betty said. "That's just a coincidence. He doesn't even live here."

"He hasn't even told your parents yet that he's here, even though he's been apparently secretly been in contact with you for several weeks," Jughead argued.

Betty shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"I told you he's not ready to tell them yet," she said. "They willingly gave him up. He doesn't know if they'll even want to see him."

"Okay," Jughead conceded, holding his hands up in surrender. He didn't want this argument to turn into a fight. "I'm probably wrong."

Betty was relieved to hear this from Jughead, but when she glanced over at him, something about his expression told her that he wasn't totally convinced.

"Maybe you should really tell your parents, though," Jughead said, standing up when he saw his foster mom pull into the Cooper's driveway. "They're going to find out eventually."

As Jughead walked towards the car, Betty thought about what he had told her. Of course she knew her parents would find out about Chic, but was it really smart of her to tell them? What if they have a bad reaction and try to get him to leave town? But it all did seem a little strange to her. She understood that maybe he needed some time before he would confront her parents, but the fact that she was the only one in her family who knew about him filled her with uneasiness.

Betty shook her head and started towards the front door of her house, still contemplating what she wanted to do.

"Mom?" Betty called out as she closed the front door behind her.

"Just me," Polly answered as she emerged from the living room.

Her tired eyes and disheveled hair were a clear sign that she had been sleeping.

"Polly," Betty smiled as she took of her coat. "Were you just asleep?"

"Yeah. These two are really making me tired," she grinned as she placed a gentle hand on her growing stomach.

Betty's eyes lit up at the mention of her twins, but later her face returned to its troubled expression that she had been wearing when she had first walked in the door.

"Is everything okay?" Polly asked when she took notice.

"Yeah," Betty replied a little too enthusiastically. Luckily for her, Polly didn't suspect anything.

"Okay," Polly nodded.

"Hey, do you know where mom is?" Betty asked as she hung her coat up in the closet.

"She's upstairs in her room I think."

"Okay," Betty said as she headed for the stairs. "Thanks Poll."

She made her way to her mom's room and opened the door to see her mom sitting at her desk, hunched over her laptop, most likely taking care of some last minute work. Her mom barely looked up as Betty entered the room.

"Hi mom," Betty said, taking a seat on the edge of her king-sized bed.

"Hey honey," her mom said as she continued to type furiously. "How did dinner go?"

"It went well," she replied. The only reason her mom had let her go to the dinner is because Betty had assured her that it would just be her, Archie, Jughead, and Veronica. If she had even made mention of Hiram being there, she would have never let her go. "I have to ask you something."

Betty could barely see her mother's slight nod as she continued typing, seemingly too preoccupied to even look at her.

"When was the last time you heard from your son?" Betty asked, almost regretting the words as they came out of her mouth.

Immediately the slight tapping of the keyboard halted, and Alice turned to Betty, her expression completely neutral.

"What's this about?" She asked as Betty nervously fidgeted with her hands.

"I'm just wondering," Betty lied. "You just told me about Chic. I wanted to know if you had ever talked to him."

Alice's eyes widened at Betty's statement.

"Has he contacted you?"

"What, no," Betty stammered. "What makes you think that?"

"Because you called him 'Chic'," her eyes narrowed and her tone grew sharp. "The name I gave him before giving him up for adoption."

Betty opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She was immediately filled with regret. She never should have brought this up.

"How long have you been talking to him?"

Her mother's tone seemed clipped and short, but nevertheless she was much more calm than Betty had expected. She kept her hands calmly folded in her lap and looked Betty straight in the eyes when she was talking to her. It was strange.

"A week or two, I guess," Betty replied.

Alice nodded her head and joined Betty, sitting next to her on the bed.

"Listen to me," she urged, taking Betty's hand. There was something strange mixed in with her tone. Was it desperation? Anger? Fear? It was hard to tell. "You cannot tell your father about this."

 **Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading. Feel free to share any suggestions, questions, or comments that you have. Get ready for the next few chapters!**


	11. Chapter 11

The slamming of lockers, the loud chatter of restless high school students, the bright fluorescent familiar sounds of the school hallway was all Betty needed to forget about everything that was going on, even if it was just for a second.

Veronica and Betty walked side by side, navigating their way through the crowded hallway, trying to make the most of the time they had before they would have to return to class. Betty knew that she needed to talk to Veronica about what happened at dinner last night, and she could tell that Veronica was itching to talk to her about it as well.

"My mom said she doesn't know anything about it," Veronica said, referring to Hiram's quick departure. "But whatever it was, it seemed urgent. One minute he was talking to Archie and I about football and cheerleading, and the next he was out the door."

Betty shuddered. Where Hiram had gone or what was in his safe was constantly on her mind.

"So, did you find anything in my dad's office?" Veronica asked, even though by the look on Betty's face yesterday at dinner, she knew the answer would be yes.

After a few seconds of contemplation, Betty realized that she would not pass up this opportunity to tell Veronica the truth.

"He has a safe in his office," she started. "And when he left the house, I saw him take a gun out of it."

Veronica's face stayed blank as she took a minute to process the information.

"I know he's your dad, Veronica. But you know what he's capable of," Betty said. "You can't trust him."

"I don't," Veronica said, trying to convince herself. "I don't trust him."

Betty nodded and kept her eyes forward, snaking her way around the overcrowded hall when she saw a familiar redhead just a few feet in front of them. She could already tell by the look on her face that she was approaching them.

"Betty," Cheryl said, stopping in front of both of the girls, "Veronica." As she addressed them both, she handed each of them a piece of simply decorated cardstock.

Veronica looked at it.

"What's this?"

Cheryl beamed, despite the fact that there was still an eerily cold look in her eye.

"I just wanted to invite both of you to my party tonight," she said in her usual fake cheery tone. "Everybody's going. We'd hate to miss you guys."

An uneasiness filled Betty when she recalled how the last party she had been to had gone for her.

"Your mom's letting you have a party?" Veronica asked, wondering why after everything that had happened to that family she would want to celebrate.

"My mom is the least of my worries," Cheryl said, her tone growing firmer. "With her in the hospital, she couldn't stop me if she tried."

Both Veronica and Betty stayed silent, unsure of what to say.

"Give this to Archie for me," Cheryl said as she handed Veronica another invitation. Cheryl turned to leave, but paused for a moment. "Oh, and Betty, your loser boyfriend is welcome to come."

Betty rolled her eyes at the comment and looked down at what Cheryl had given them.

"Wait, Cheryl," Betty said after giving the invitation a closer look. "This address is wrong. It's still addressed to Thornhill."

Cheryl smiled sweetly.

"Oh Betty. You really think I would make a mistake on my own invitation?" She said before turning on her heel, making her way towards a group of jocks to go hand off some more invitations.

As she disappeared into the distance, Betty raised her eyebrows in question at Veronica.

"What was that?" Betty asked.

Veronica shook her head.

"How does she even have the time or energy to have a party with everything that's been going on?"

"She's Cheryl. Who knows… I didn't realize her mom was in the hospital…," Betty trailed off. "What do you think happened to her?"

"Let's hope it didn't involve Cheryl," Veronica said.

Cheryl had been through so much with her family that it wasn't hard for Veronica to believe if she had lashed out at her mother. She had already lashed out once by burning her house down, which apparently was going to be the location of the party.

"Let's hope," Betty agreed, surprised at the fact that Veronica could even think that would be a possibility. But the more she thought about it, the more convinced she became.

"Are we going to go?" Veronica asked.

"I don't know," Betty replied. "Do you think there's something there worth looking for?"

"Let's find out. I'm curious about how she's going to have a party at a house that doesn't exist."

XXX

"How long is it gonna be, dad?" Jughead asked as he watched his father through the metal cell bars.

"The trial is scheduled to be ten days from now," FP replied. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Sorry if I would rather visit my dad who's wrongfully in jail than go to a school that uses metal detectors as a welcome banner," Jughead replied sarcastically.

"I don't want you to miss out because of my mistakes," FP said with a sigh. "You need to go to school, get educated, be with your friends. Live your life."

"Mistakes? You may have made some mistakes, dad, but you did not murder Jason Blossom. And the police know that now."

"They also know that I got in the way of their investigation."

"You withheld information to protect me. How can the police not understand that?"

FP paused, looking up from the floor.

"Listen Jughead, this trial is going to get messy. My past isn't clean, and in court they're not going to forget about that," FP said. "My lawyer, he said that even best case scenario I'll have to spend at least a year or two in jail."

"Then you need a better lawyer," Jughead argued. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm telling you this to prepare you, Jughead. I'll be fine. What you need to do is worry about yourself, your mom, and Jellybean."

Jughead shook his head and stormed out of the room, trying hard not to believe what his father had told him. He pounded his fist on the wall in frustration. He barely noticed the other people in the station until he caught a glimpse of a pink haired girl staring at him from a bench in the hallway.

He ignored her, making his way to the front door.

XXX

Archie, Veronica, Betty, and Jughead looked out at Thornhill. To their surprise, the house was still standing. Loud music easily drifted towards them through the multiple ashy holes in the walls and the missing sections of roof. It wasn't exactly intact, but it wasn't burned down to the ground either.

Their eyes widened at the sight.

"Is nobody starting to regret this?" Jughead asked over the music as he surveyed the scene in front of him. If he knew anything about himself, it was that he did not enjoy parties.

He didn't get an answer, though, mostly because the group knew that it wasn't an option to leave. They weren't here to party.

"Has Cheryl been living here?" Betty asked loudly, struggling to even hear herself.

"Maybe," Archie said with a shrug.

"But the house barely has a roof," Betty said. Unfortunately, the music was too loud for anybody to hear.

As soon as they rang the doorbell, the door immediately swung open to reveal Cheryl.

"Look who made it," she said with a smile plastered on her face.

The group was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"What are you waiting for? The party's in here," Cheryl yelled before quickly joining a group of people on the dance floor.

Once Cheryl left, the group of friends made their way upstairs into the guest bedroom and shut the door.

"Are we really doing this?" Betty asked now that they could actually hear each other speak.

"We have to," Archie replied.

"He's right," Veronica said. "The party's a perfect distraction for us to look around."

"Even if it it means we have to endure being at a party," Jughead agreed.

"But what exactly are we looking for?" Betty asked.

"Anything that might point us towards who could be responsible for my dad's death," Archie said with conviction. "Or something that could tell us more about the drug situation that's been happening in this town. It could even help your dad, Jughead. My best guess would be to check out the barn full of maple syrup barrels and Mr. Blossom's room."

"Didn't the police already investigate here?" Betty asked. "If there was evidence, wouldn't the police have found it already?"

"We all know the police in this town have made mistakes," Archie added bitterly. "And they've gotten nowhere so far."

He was right. The police were the ones who falsely accused Jughead's dad of murder and so far there was no progress in any of the ongoing investigations.

"So we're looking for anything the police might have missed?" Betty asked.

"It's worth a try," Archie said. "Veronica and I will search the barn. Jughead, Betty, you can check Mr. Blossom's room and anywhere else in the house you think might have something."

Betty was surprised to see Archie taking charge after what he had been through. If she had endured as great of a loss as he had, she was unsure if she would be capable of going to a party to investigate, let alone even get out of bed. But revenge was a strong motivator, and from the darkness in his eyes she could tell that Archie was filled with it.

XXX

"Find anything?" Betty asked as she searched the nightstand next to the bed.

"Not yet," Jughead said, opening the closet.

An air of silence encompassed the room as they continued to open drawers, ruffle through papers, and move furniture.

Jughead walked over to the bookshelf, skimming the titles, occasionally pulling a book out and examining it. He always thought that you could find out a lot about somebody by the books they read. Despite that assertion, none of the books were helping. He paused, looking towards Betty as she busied herself with some papers she found in one of the drawers. Her mouth was pressed in a thin line. It was clear that she hadn't found anything either.

"Did you tell your parents?" Jughead asked hesitantly.

Betty looked up.

"About what?"

"Your brother."

"I told my mom," Betty said, standing up from where she had been kneeling.

Jughead raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"She didn't seem angry. There was something else," Betty said as she looked back down at the papers. "She seemed scared."

"What about your dad?"

"I didn't tell him. Right after I told my mom, she practically begged me not to tell him."

Jughead frowned.

"Betty, it seems like your parents know more about this than they're letting on," Jughead said. "Your mom doesn't want your dad to find out… He knows that your brother exists right?"

"Yeah," Betty said. "Of course. I know he tried to get my mom to take care of it, but he must know that she ended up having the baby. She couldn't have hid that from him because he was the one who paid for her stay at Sisters of Quiet Mercy to have the baby."

"I don't know," Jughead said, shaking his head. "Then maybe the person she's scared of isn't your father."

Betty paused as his words sunk in.

"You think she's scared of Chic? My brother?"

"He shows up out of nowhere, and not to mention at the worst possible time. He followed you to Veronica's house-"

"He didn't follow me," Betty intercepted. "He was just making sure I was safe."

"How is it that he already knows how dangerous Hiram is, or where the Lodges live, the minute he gets in town?"

"It's a small town!" Betty protested.

"Just by you saying 'Veronica', he somehow figured out that you would be at the Lodges. And he just assumed that nobody else in the town had that name?"

"I'm tired of you always having these suspicions about people, Jughead. Stop being so cynical. Not everybody is a suspect. He's my brother! He's been nothing but nice to me. Why do you want to ruin this?"

"'Not everybody's a suspect?' Tell that to Cheryl Blossom, whose own father killed her brother."

With the stack of papers in hand, Betty turned to the door.

"Why can't you ever see anybody as anything other than what they seem to you? Not everything in life is all doom and gloom. Some people are good," she said, her words almost echoing those that she had told him in the garage on his birthday.

With that, she turned on her heel and made her way out of the door. The music got louder and louder as she descended down the stairs. Normally, she didn't like loud music at parties. This time, she let the music drown out her thoughts. She didn't want to think anymore.

Navigating her way around clusters of drunk high schoolers, she tried to find her way to the front door.

"Betty Cooper," a familiar voice echoed.

Betty looked up to see Chuck Clayton. He towered over her with a smirk, drink in hand.

"Get out of my way," she said as she pushed passed him, snatching the plastic cup out of his hand.

She continued to walk, downing the drink as she made her way to the front door. It burned as it went down her throat, but she didn't care.

The papers in her hand shuffled in the wind as she stepped outside. Betty found her phone and began dialing a number.

"Hey Chic," she said. "Yeah I'm fine… I just need a ride. Can you come pick me up?... I'm at Thornhill… Okay. Thanks."

With that, she hung up the phone and waited until her brother showed up. She hoped Jughead had stayed in Mr. Blossom's room. She didn't want him looking for her.

"Betty," she heard a voice call out.

She let out a sigh of relief when she saw her brother through the window of his car.

"Chic," she answered as she saw his car pull up to the curb.

Betty stumbled to the car door, her hand fumbling around the handle until she finally got the door open.

"You okay?" Chic asked as he noticed Betty's unsteadiness.

"I'm fine," Betty said. "I only had one drink."

"You don't look good."

"I just want to go home," Betty said.

"What about your boyfriend? Is he here?"

"Yeah he's here," Betty said bitterly.

It didn't take long for Chic to realize that they had probably gotten into a fight.

"Want to talk about it?" Chic asked.

"There's nothing to talk about," Betty said, only she knew it wasn't true. After a few seconds she caved and spoke again. "He doesn't trust you."

"I guess that's fair," Chic said. "Especially after what's happened in this town."

"But you didn't do anything wrong."

"He'll find that out," Chic replied. "Trust is earned."

Betty's frowned, trying to figure out what Chich meant by that, but at this point it was hard for her to think clearly.

"Jughead can find a ride home," she said. "I just want to get out of here."

"Okay," Chic said as he pressed on the gas, leaving Thornhill behind.

Betty closed her eyes, trying to block her fight with Jughead out of her brain. The more she tried not to think about it, the more she dwelled on it. She shouldn't have snapped at him. He was only looking out for her. She began to reach for her phone until she reminded herself that she probably should apologize tomorrow, when she was sober.

Her eyes fluttered open. She turned to look out of the window, watching as each familiar mailbox, tree, or house passed by. Only, it wasn't familiar. Even in her current state, she could tell that this wasn't how to get to her house.

"I think you're going the wrong way," Betty said.

Chic stayed silent for a second, keeping his gaze focused on the road.

"We're taking a detour," he said. "The car's running low on gas, so I'm gonna need to stop to get some."

"Oh, okay," Betty replied, letting her eyes close once again.

How long she was asleep, she didn't know. She opened her eyes to see that they were driving into the school parking lot of Riverdale High. Betty squeezed her eyes shut, wondering the haze she was in was just a dream. But when she opened her eyes again, the papers she had been carrying from Mr. Blossom's room were no longer on her lap. Only, the familiar high school was still in view.

"What are we doing here?" Betty asked.

Chic stayed silent as he pulled into a parking spot.

"Chic, what are we doing at Riverdale High?"

Again, no answer.

"You should've listened to your boyfriend," Chic said, taking the keys out of the car.

"What?" Betty asked, her eyebrows raised in confusion. "Listen, I don't know what we're doing here, but I really just want to-"

She looked up and stopped talking. It didn't take long for her to realize that she was staring down the barrel of a gun.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! In the next chapter, you will definitely find out who Chic Cooper really is and what he's doing in Riverdale. So to all of you who have been wondering about this character, you'll finally get an answer!**

 **If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to share.**


	12. Chapter 12

"Get out of the car."

Chic had gotten out of the driver's seat and opened the passenger side door, waiting for Betty to get out.

Betty frantically searched her pockets for her phone, only to realize that Chic must have taken it while she was asleep.

Just a few minutes ago, Betty was convinced that Chic wasn't a bad person, that he wasn't involved in what was going on in town. Now, she was frozen in fear.

"Why are you doing this?" Betty asked with a trembling voice.

"Get out of the car, Betty," Chic said, ignoring her question and bringing his gun closer to her.

Staring at the gun aimed at her chest, Betty subconsciously knew what she needed to do. She had to play along.

She slowly stepped out of the car and took a deep breath, keeping her eyes trained on Chic.

"Don't try to scream," Chic said. "There's nobody out here who can help you."

He grabbed her arm and began leading her in the direction of the entrance to the school.

"Walk," he commanded.

She didn't resist when he pulled her closer to the high school's entrance.

When they reached the doors, Chic grabbed a key from his pocket. With one twist, the door opened. Chic cautiously looked back, making sure nobody had seen or followed them.

The hallways were completely dark. No longer were they bustling with students or full of loud chatter that usually got on Betty's nerves. But the silence was deafening. It reminded her that there was nobody here except for her and a man with a gun.

"Keep going," Chic said as they walked past doors of empty classrooms.

Betty could feel the cold metal of the gun pressed against her shoulder.

"Stop," he said as they reached a familiar room. One of the most familiar rooms to Betty in the whole school.

Once Chic unlocked the door, they entered the Blue and Gold, home to the school newspaper that Betty worked so hard on. It gave her a sick feeling. What the hell did Chic want with the school newspaper?

She felt Chic harshly tug her over to the desk. Betty's vision blurred, and a few seconds later she was overwhelmed with images of the night somebody had wrecked her computer and threatened her.

"Sit," Chic said, gesturing to the chair at the desk.

Betty trembled as she slowly took a seat. Her plan of doing what Chic wanted her to do was getting harder. She did not want to mess with the school newspaper.

"Now log in," he said.

Betty hesitated, despite the gun that Chic held to her shoulder.

"Betty," he began. "Log in."

She let out a breath and began typing until she was logged in to the computer and by default the Blue and Gold website popped up on the screen.

"Now," he began, turning Betty's chair around so he could look her in the eye. "You're going to write an article for me."

Betty's fingers trembled on the keyboard as he spoke.

"You're going to write that FP is guilty, maybe not for murder, but for concealing the truth. You will write that you heard from an anonymous source that the serpents were very much involved in the Blossom's underground drug trade, despite what FP told the police."

Betty's eyes widened. She couldn't ignore how fast her heart was beating, or the feeling of a gun on her, or the feeling of guilt that she would experience if she wrote what Chic wanted her to write. She couldn't play along anymore.

"What makes you think that writing an article is going do anything? Especially if the only proof is from an 'anonymous source' and if this is all coming from a school newspaper," Betty said, struggling to get out the words.

Chic raised his eyebrows.

"You'd be surprised what people in this town are willing to believe," he started. "The police haven't figured any of it out. The longer the criminals are still out there and undiscovered, people get more and more desperate. If they can finally put a name on it, their minds are at ease."

"What's in it for you? You know that FP and the serpents aren't involved. Why do you want me to write this?" Betty asked, trying to stall but also curious as to what his answer was.

"That's enough. No more questions," Chic said. "Start writing."

"No, wait," Betty protested, trying to buy some time. "If I'm writing this article, I need to know why you want me to write it. That way, I can make sure that the article does exactly what you want it to."

Chic narrowed his eyes as he contemplated what Betty was asking and eventually nodded.

"Well, you'd also be surprised at how much money people in this town are willing to pay to get people to do things for them," Chic said.

Betty immediately realized what he was saying. He was doing this for money.

"Now get back to work," he said, gesturing towards the computer screen.

Betty stared at the blank document for a few seconds before she hesitantly tapped the keyboard. As long as she was typing, she figured she might be able to get some more answers out of Chic.

"Why am I writing this? Wouldn't it be so much easier for you to just write it yourself instead of holding me at gunpoint?" Betty asked. A few minutes ago, she would have been too scared to ask this, but now she knew that he needed her alive. He wouldn't pull the trigger.

"Writing and I don't mix. Nobody would believe it if I wrote it," Chic answered.

"What makes you think that people are going to believe what I write?" Betty countered.

"I've read your writing, Betty. I don't even need to give an explanation," Chic answered.

Betty focused back on the computer screen. So far she had one sentence written. She needed to buy some more time and figure out what to do. The last thing she was going to do was write this article and let Chic publish it. Too many people would get hurt.

"Are you even my brother?" Betty asked quietly.

"You can't be serious," Chic laughed. "You really think I'm still your brother? Chic Cooper is out there somewhere. But I'm not him."

Betty closed her eyes, taking in the information. The I.D. he had shown her must have been fake. Her brother was still out there.

"I'm done answering questions," the man said. "Write."

She typed a sentence. Then another one. But she couldn't do this anymore. As much as she tried to focus, all she could think about was Jughead. She should have listened to him. If she published this article, it would hurt not only FP, but also Jughead.

"Keep typing," he said, reminding her that he was in control by pressing the gun harder on her shoulder.

Betty tried to ignore it and began typing, hoping that this nightmare would end.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to share any comments, suggestions, or questions.**


	13. Chapter 13

"Come on, Betty. Pick up," Jughead mumbled to himself as he dialed Betty's phone number for the third time.

After Betty had left Mr. Blossom's room, Jughead made the decision to give her some space, which now he was severely regretting. He had searched the entire house, at least what was left of it, but to no avail. She was nowhere to be found. Normally, he would have just assumed she had went home, but with what was happening in town, it was hard to assume anything.

Jughead felt the cool air brush past him as he stood in front of the Blossom's house. Loud music blared in the background. Just as it had the last two times, Betty's phone went to straight to voicemail. And in all the time Jughead knew her, Betty never left her phone off.

"Shit," he said under his breath, barely noticing the pair of footsteps that echoed on the pavement close by.

"Jughead?" A voice called.

He looked over. It was Archie and Veronica, both empty handed.

"Any luck?" Archie asked as he approached.

Jughead shook his head.

"I wish we could say differently," Veronica said. "We didn't find anything either."

"Where's Betty?" Archie asked, noticing the uneasy expression on Jughead's face.

"I don't know," Jughead began. "I've been calling her, but it's going straight to voicemail. With anybody else I wouldn't think twice, but the thing is, Betty never leaves her phone off."

Archie frowned, contemplating the situation.

"Maybe her phone ran out of battery?" Veronica asked hopefully.

"Maybe," Jughead said. "But this is Betty we're talking about. She wouldn't leave the house with a phone with low battery."

An air of silence settled in the group as they thought to themselves.

"Did something happen, Jughead? She couldn't have gotten far, I mean, you were both in the same room, right?" Archie asked hesitantly, even though he already could guess what Jughead's answer would be.

"We got into a fight," Jughead explained. "She left the room and I gave her a few minutes, but now after searching the whole house, or I guess what's left of it, I can't find her."

"So the last time you saw her was in the Blossom's room?" Veronica asked.

"Yeah… I've been trying to think of where she would be. Her house is a safe bet, but I don't know how she ended up getting a ride," Jughead said.

"And she had to have gotten a ride by someone," Archie added, then paused. "Do you remember the night that somebody got into the school and broke Betty's computer?"

"Yeah," Jughead said, looking down and nodding. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought, trying to understand what point Archie was getting at.

"Well, that night she said she went to work on the Blue and Gold to clear her head. And you just said that you got into a fight…," Archie said.

"So she could be at the school," Jughead finished the sentence. He let out a breath, relieved that he could at least start looking there.

"Let's look there," Archie said.

"What about her house? For all she know, she could be at home, safe and sound," Veronica said.

"We could try there, too," Jughead replied. "But I think we should check the school first. If she's at home, we won't have anything to worry about."

"I have my car, and Archie has his. While you two are checking the school, I could check her house. It'll be faster if I end up finding her at home anyways. I'll call you if I find her, and then you guys won't have to drive all the way to the school," Veronica said.

"Sounds like a reasonable plan to me," Jughead said.

"Are you sure you're okay going alone?" Archie asked Veronica as he put his hand on her shoulder.

Veronica smiled.

"Concerned boyfriend looks good on you, Arch," Veronica said, backing away and holding up her car keys. "But I'll be fine. It's just a few blocks away. You and Jughead go do your thing."

Archie nodded.

"Okay," he said. "But if you find her call me as soon as you can."

"Got it," Veronica said with a smile as she opened her car door.

XXX

Betty stared at the computer, her eyes taking in the brightness of the screen. Impulsively, she felt her nails gravitate towards her palm. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the pain distract her.

"Keep writing," the man who wasn't her brother warned.

Even though she knew it was a risky move, Betty rolled her eyes.

"Writing these articles takes time. I can't just come up with something in a matter of hours."

"Then we're gonna be here for a while," he said.

Betty unclenched her fist, letting the pain radiate out of her hand. She brought her hands up to the keyboard and typed, adding on to the few sentences that she had written. She needed to do something. She couldn't just sit here and stall him forever. No matter how much time she bought for herself, it wouldn't mean anything if she didn't use it wisely.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Betty suddenly stood up. The gun slid from her shoulder to her arm, and with a quick movement, she elbowed it, sending it flying out of the man's hand. She lunged to the side, hoping she could get her hands on it, but felt a strong force push her backwards. Her body slammed against the file cabinets and she let out a cry as she dropped to the ground. She barely focused on the man, who had retrieved the gun and was now pointing it at her. Pain radiated throughout her body.

The man approached with heavy footsteps and harshly yanked her arm up to the point where she was standing. Stumbling back towards the desk, she sat down.

She could feel the gun pressed against her shoulder and the the man's voice right by her ear.

"Don't ever do that again."

XXX

Archie and Jughead made their way to their car in silence.

After putting the keys into the ignition, Archie sighed and paused. Jughead watched and expectantly waited for him to say something.

"Look, I'm only asking this because Betty's my best friend. I just want to know what made her so upset," Archie said as his eyes met Jughead's.

"I just… have some reservations about her brother. I don't trust Chic Cooper. So many things about him are suspicious," Jughead said.

"I don't really know him," Archie said, checking the road behind him as he put the car in reverse. "But I will agree that the timing is a little weird."

"I should have just shut my mouth," Jughead said.

Archie kept his eyes focused on the road.

"Maybe," Archie said. "But at least you were honest."

Jughead nodded, but through the miles he and Archie were driving, he couldn't ignore the regret he felt.

"There's another car, but it's not Betty's," Archie said as they made their way into the school parking lot. "It's ten thirty. What's anybody doing here so late?"

Jughead's eyes widened.

"Archie," he began. "That's Chic's car."

Archie narrowed his eyes.

"That's strange," he said. "Maybe he gave her a ride here?"

"I don't know," Jughead said, determined. "Let's find out."

After navigating the halls as quickly as they could, Jughead and Archie both made their way to the door of the Blue and Gold. Archie looked over at Jughead, nodding.

Jughead let out a breath as he twisted the doorknob, pulling the door open.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I wanted to mention that I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks. It won't affect my schedule for posting these chapters, as I'm definitely going to make it a priority to keep posting every week. However, some chapters might be on the shorter side, like this one. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.**


	14. Chapter 14

"Do you really think you're going to get away with this?"

The man laughed, but kept his gun pointed firmly.

"And why not? My boss has gotten everything taken care of. After this, I'm collecting my reward and getting the hell out of this god awful town," he answered. "Besides, who would believe you? What would you even begin to tell the police? 'A man pretended to my brother and then held me at gunpoint to write an article for him?' Get back to typing."

Betty shifted her gaze downward, letting her eyes stop on the pink blotches on her leg, which would without a doubt turn black and blue. Only now was she aware of the pain that resulted from her attempt to escape. She didn't mind it, though. It distracted her. And at least she didn't have to resort to her usual habits, she thought as she surveyed her palms, which had dried blood caked around the familiar four crescent moon shaped markings.

If only she had been able to get to the gun faster, she knew she would be in a totally different situation. Only now, she was back at the computer, trapped by an an imposter who was holding her at gunpoint.

She faced the familiar mix of guilt, dread, and anger as she let her fingers lightly skirt across the keyboard, barely paying attention to the words that she was typing.

It wasn't until she felt the gun shift slightly that she realized the doorknob was moving. She looked over at the man, whose expression changed in the blink of an eye. Betty didn't have any time to react before the door swung open, revealing Jughead and Archie.

"Betty!" Jughead called out.

He and Archie froze when they noticed the gun in Chic's hand, which was pointed at Betty. Betty's eyes widened in horror as she felt the gun's aim move from her shoulder up to her friends.

"Get out of here," Betty urged with tears in her eyes. "Just leave. Please."

Jughead ignored what she was saying, instead turning to Chic with anger in his eyes.

"What the hell is this?" he asked, not deterred by the weapon that threatened him.

"Your boyfriend needs to learn some manners, Betty," the man said pointedly, not even bothering to address the question.

"No, you need to tell us what you're doing," Archie asked with determination, taking a few steps forward.

"Take one more step, and I'll shoot."

Archie stopped, obeying the orders. Jughead discreetly held his phone in his pocket, hoping he would be able call for help before Chic noticed. Before he could enter in the number, the phone began to vibrate with Veronica's caller ID on the screen.

"Both of you, hand over your phones," Chic ordered as he heard the phone vibrating. "Now."

Archie gave Jughead a hesitant look, but in a matter of seconds he dug his phone out of his pocket, ready to hand it over. Betty noticed something in Archie's eyes. She didn't know what it was, but it definitely wasn't fear.

While Archie got out his phone, Jughead glanced at Betty, who was sitting at the desk uncomfortably. She met his eyes with a fearful expression. Whatever was happening here with Chic, it wasn't good.

"You too," Chic said to Jughead after taking Archie's phone.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jughead saw Archie preparing for something. He just didn't know what. To keep the man distracted, Jughead waited a few seconds before pulling out his phone, reluctantly handing it over.

When the man turned back around, Archie swung a textbook at his head with all the force he could muster. Immediately, the man stumbled backwards, both in pain and disoriented from the strength of the blow.

Before he could come to his senses, Archie lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. Jughead followed close behind, scrambling to the gun that Chic had dropped. Betty watched as Archie landed a few punches on the man's face. Jughead began to make his way over to Betty, who watched Archie swing his bloody fist over and over again.

"Stop!" Betty yelled, taking everybody in the room by surprise.

Archie halted and looked down at Chic, who was unconscious, and most likely would be for a while.

"Betty," Jughead said as he reached her. "Are you hurt?"

She stared straight ahead, not bothering to answer. Jughead followed her gaze, which was focused on the computer in front of her. He read the first few sentences, but eventually resorted to shutting the lid of the computer.

"Hey," he said, trying to get Betty to meet his eyes. "Look at me."

She shook her head, tears trailing down her cheeks.

"If that had been published…," she said tearfully.

"It doesn't matter," Jughead said, trying to calm her down. "It's a stupid article. They need real proof."

Betty tried to slow her breathing, but that only made it worse. Everything was too much to handle. Her hands shakily made their way up to her ponytail, where she fumbled with the hair tie, eventually letting her hair fall to her shoulders, out of its usual style.

"We should call the police," Archie said, picking up his phone from the ground.

"No," Betty said as her expression hardened. "Not yet."

"Betty…," Jughead said he saw her rise from the chair, making her way over to the cabinets. She frantically opened and closed drawers, trying desperately to find what she was looking for.

"Betty, he's going to wake up soon," Archie said.

"That's why we need this," she said as she turned away from the cabinets, holding up several extension cords. "Help me get him in a chair."

"Come on, Betty," Jughead said as he started towards her. "Put those down."

When he reached for the extension cords in her hands, she jerked away, clutching them tightly. She pulled out a chair and struggled to lift the man's body into it. To her surprise, Archie came up beside her and helped her sit the unconscious man in the chair. As he was being moved, he stirred. He was going to wake up.

"Betty," Jughead said as she used the extension cords to tie his wrists tightly to the arms of the chair. "Please."

Betty ignored his pleas.

"Archie? Please don't tell me you think this is a good idea," Jughead said.

Archie looked back at him with an serious, but slightly unsure expression. The man in the chair let out a groan. Everybody stood in silence as his eyes fluttered open.

Almost immediately, after realizing what was going on, he struggled to break free from the extension cords that kept him planted in the chair.

"What the hell?" the man said to himself.

"I guess the tables have turned," Betty began, her voice hollow. "And now, you're going to do something for me."

Jughead watched as Betty picked up the gun that had been sitting on the desk.

"Betty, what are you doing?" Jughead asked.

"What I have to," Betty answered as she pointed the gun at the Chic's head.

The man was trying hard to keep his composure. Nevertheless, it was easy to see the fear in his eyes.

"You're going to answer some questions for me," Betty said. "Starting with what your real name is."

A flash of hesitation appeared on the man's face, but a few seconds passed before he answered "Alex Walker."

"So, Alex Walker, why did you decide to carry out this plan? What was the point?"

"I already told you… I needed cash."

"Who are you working for?" Betty demanded, taking a few steps forward.

Alex's eyes widened, but even as Betty pressed the gun against his head, he kept his mouth shut.

"Answer the question," she said louder.

No response.

"Were you the one who broke into the school and destroyed my computer? Was that you all along?" Betty asked, more frantically this time. She needed answers, for Jughead and his father's sake.

Archie gave Jughead an urgent look. They needed to stop Betty before she did something she would regret.

"No," Alex replied. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Betty sighed in frustration.

"Tell me who you're working for, or I swear, I'll shoot," Betty said as she pressed the gun more firmly into his head.

"Betty," Archie said. "It's enough. He's not going to tell us. Put the gun down before you do something you're gonna regret. We can call the police and all of this will be over."

"No," Betty said. "I need to find this out. I can't let anybody else get hurt."

Jughead took a few steps up to Betty, who had tears in her eyes. He carefully moved her arm downwards, wrapping his hands around the gun that she was holding. It took a few seconds before Betty released the weapon, letting Jughead take it out of her hand and put it on the desk behind them. She could only maintain her composure for a few seconds before she crumpled to the ground, hysterically sobbing.

Jughead kneeled down and wrapped her in his arms, prepared to stay with her for as long as she needed.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I wanted to include some dark Betty in this chapter because I have a feeling we'll see some of that in season two. Hope you enjoyed, and let me know if you want to see more dark Betty in the future.**


	15. Chapter 15

"The police are here," Archie said with his phone in hand. "You can tell them everything, okay?"

Betty nodded and buried her head into Jughead's shoulder. She didn't know how to feel. Was she grateful that the police were coming and that this nightmare would end? Or did she just want to go home and forget the whole thing happened? And Alex Walker was still sitting, tied up in the chair. How was she going to explain that to the police?

Jughead kept his arm around Betty, unsure of what to say or do. He could feel her trembling even through the thick layer of his jacket.

"After the police come, I'm taking you home, okay?" Jughead asked, not expecting an answer. And he was right. She didn't answer.

A few minutes later, everybody in the room was disrupted from their thoughts when three firm knocks sounded on the door and the police notified that they were there. Several officers entered the door, desperately scanning the room to identify who were the victims and who were the threats.

As the police searched the room and bombarded Archie and Jughead with questions, Betty stayed silent. She kept her head tilted down to the ground, scared to look up or even think. She barely moved her gaze up as Alex was being dragged out of the room, restrained in handcuffs.

"Betty?"

...

"Betty?"

Betty squeezed her eyes shut before opening them, finally aware of the voices that were calling her name. She didn't know how long she had zoned out for, but all she knew was that everything was such a blur.

"Betty, the police want to talk to you," Jughead said as he reassuringly squeezed her hand.

"Hi Betty, I know you've had a rough night, so I'm going to keep this really quick," the police officer explained. "Is there anything else that you can tell us about what happened here tonight? Anything else that perhaps you haven't told your friends about yet, or anything that happened before your friends found you?"

Betty paused for a few seconds before shaking her head. She was pretty sure she didn't need to tell the police anything else. All she wanted was for Alex Walker to be as far away as possible, and that was already happening.

"Okay," the police officer nodded. "If tomorrow or any other day you have anything else to tell us, even if you don't think it will be helpful, please don't hesitate to come in."

"Okay," Betty answered weakly, holding onto Jughead's arm even more for support.

"One more thing," the officer began. "I would advise you to go to the hospital. You seem to have some pretty bad bruises. And an experience like this, well, can quite frankly do some damage to your mental health. I'm not a licensed medical professional, but the doctor's might be able to give you something for the next few days to ease your anxiety."

Archie nodded.

"Will do, officer," he harshly replied. Even now, Archie wasn't a fan of the police.

Archie led the way to the door with his two friends trailing behind. Even in this situation, he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy when he saw Betty wrapped up in Jughead's arms.

XXX

Archie kept his eyes focused on the road in front of him while Betty and Jughead sat in the backseat of his car. When he turned the car right instead of left, which was the way to Betty's house, Betty's eyes widened.

"What are you doing?" Betty asked, immediately jolting into a more upright position.

"What do you mean?" Archie asked.

"Why did you turn right? That's not the way to my house," Betty said. She tried to keep the memories of Alex deceptively going the wrong way from entering her mind.

"Hey," Jughead said calmly. "It's okay. We need to take you to the hospital."

"No," Betty shook her head. "Please, I just want to go home."

"The police officer told us to take you here," Archie added.

"I don't care what the police officer said," Betty replied in a steady voice.

"You have bruises all over your leg and your hands are hurt," Jughead said. "And like the officer said, you might be able to get something to ease your mind for the next few days."

"I'm not going to the hospital for a few bruises," Betty said stubbornly. "And I don't need medication. I'm not crazy."

"Betty-" Jughead began.

"No," she interrupted. "Just take me home."

"Okay," Jughead with resignation after a few seconds passed.

XXX

Jughead closed the door to Betty's room behind him. Archie had dropped them off at the Cooper's house. Jughead and Betty had sneakily entered the house and made their way upstairs without waking anyone. They both knew that it would be better for now to be quiet about what had happened than to say anything to Betty's parents.

Jughead set the glass of water he had gotten for Betty on her bedside table. He kept the two bandages he had gotten from the kitchen in his hand and sat next to Betty, who was at the edge of her bed. As he gently picked up one of her hands, Betty pulled her hand out of his grip.

"Stop. You don't always have to take care of me," Betty said, almost regretting the words as soon as she said them. She wasn't ungrateful at all, it was just that she felt bad that Jughead always had to take care of her. She felt like it was wasting his time. He had a more pressing issues in his life and she didn't want to drag him down even more. She felt like a burden.

"But I want to," Jughead replied softly as he reached for her hand again.

This time, Betty let him take hold of it. She wasn't sure if she agreed with him, or if she was just too tired to protest any more. Jughead made quick work of wrapping the bandages around her wounded hands. She liked that about him. He didn't stop to ask why she did what she did, or demand her to stop. He just accepted her.

Jughead stood up from the bed and threw the plastic wrappers from the band-aids away in the trash can.

"You need anything else? Food? Another blanket? A good bedtime story?"

Betty wanted to acknowledge his subtle attempt at humor, but instead continued to sit quietly on the edge of her bed. Jughead stood by her desk, unsure of what to say or do. An air of silence took hold of the room.

"I'm not crazy," Betty said quietly, breaking the silence.

Jughead joined her and sat on the edge of the bed, keeping his head down as he listened to her speak.

"You were right, Jughead. I should have trusted you."

"That's not your fault. You thought he was your brother."

Another minute of silence passed.

"Sometimes I feel like the world is closing in on me and it's like I'm suddenly consumed by some sort of pent up anger. And there's nothing I can do to make that feeling go away," Betty continued. "There's a darkness in me, Juggie, and I don't know what it is."

 **Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading. Hope you enjoyed! I would like to give a special thank you to everybody who has been consistently reading and reviewing. I really appreciate it.**


	16. Chapter 16

Jughead navigated his way around the hallways of Southside High. Betty had fallen asleep last night in his arms, and her five am alarm had been more than enough to wake him up from his deep slumber.

The sound of slamming lockers and loud chatter reverberated in the background. He stopped by his locker, which could hardly be considered one. The grey paint was peeling off and the metal lock was no longer attached to the door, so the locker just hung open freely. And in a school like this, Jughead knew that if he put anything in there he would just be asking for something to get stolen.

He sighed and turned, abandoning the locker, deciding he didn't really need it anyways. Several paces ahead of him, a large amount of students began to swarm, forming a circle around something. Trying to make his way through the narrow hallway was hard enough on a normal day, and all of these people blocking it weren't making things any easier. Voices grew louder as he approached the circle. Peering through the mass of cheering people, he saw two students, one of which had just taken a punch to the face by the other. His eyes fixed on one of them. Jughead was sure he had seen him at Whyte Wyrm before.

Despite everything, Jughead didn't mind Southside High. It was a much different experience than Riverdale High, that was for sure. He wasn't too fond of being so separated from his friends, but at the same time, he otherwise found that he didn't really mind the isolation. Being separate from the world he once knew was refreshing.

A minute or two passed before a security guard had gotten ahold of the situation and subdued the crowd, ordering the mass of students to immediately go to class. As the circle began to disappear, Jughead found a clear path through the hall and didn't hesitate to take it. He had probably only been walking for thirty seconds before he felt a sharp tug on his arm. Before he could react, he was tugged into a classroom he didn't recognize.

Mentally, Jughead prepared for the worst. He assumed it was somebody trying to steal his computer, or somebody who just wanted to fight him for no reason. But as he knew, there was a reason for everything in Riverdale. Maybe Southside High was the exception...

He spun around, surprised at the sight in front of him. This was nobody dangerous, from what he could tell, and she didn't seem to be trying to do him any harm. As his eyes scanned her pink hair, he immediately recognized her. She was the one he had seen at the police station when he had gone to talk to his father.

"Jughead?" she asked.

"That's me," Jughead said, still recovering from the sudden experience. "And I'm pretty sure you could've asked that without pulling me into a random classroom and scaring me half to death."

"Your FP's son," the girl said, pausing for a moment as she took in the sight of Jughead.

Jughead raised his eyebrows.

"And?" He asked.

"I saw you at the police office a few days ago," she said, taking a seat on one of the nearest desks.

"I remember," Jughead said, looking down. "I'm still not quite sure why you pulled me in here?"

"I can help you," she said. "I can help you get your dad out of jail."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's very likely," Jughead said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Toni Topaz," she said.

"What makes you think you can get my dad out of jail?" Jughead asked curiously, but also doubtfully. How was this person he barely knew going to get his dad out of something that even his father's assigned lawyer couldn't?

Before she said anything else, she pulled the down the sleeve of her jacket, revealing an all too familiar serpent tattoo.

"You're a serpent?" Jughead asked.

"Don't look so surprised," Toni replied as she pulled her sleeve back up. "Do you want help or not?"

"Yeah."

"FP may not have told you this, but we serpents have a backup plan for any run-ins with the law, a little fall back just in case something goes wrong," she said.

"Which is?" Jughead asked.

"Penny Peabody."

"You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that," Jughead replied.

Toni smiled playfully as she noticed Jughead's patience grow thinner.

"She's the serpents' very own backroom attorney. She works behind the scenes to help us out with any legal business. You'd be surprised at how much more trouble we'd be in if it wasn't for her," Toni explained. "But there's a catch."

"What is it?" Jughead asked, feeling his hope drain as he heard her last sentence.

"She prefers to be paid in favors, not cash."

Jughead contemplated this, wondering if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He knew he didn't have any money to pay any other attorney, but he was curious about what Toni meant by "favors".

"And by favors, I mean it's basically simple stuff like making deliveries. I've never actually needed her help, but that's what I've heard," Toni explained before Jughead could even ask the question.

Jughead nodded. He wasn't totally sold on the idea of approaching this Penny Peabody, but he would definitely give it consideration if it would help his dad.

"Why are you helping me?" Jughead asked.

Toni paused.

"I don't know… Your dad's well respected and well… you looked like you needed help," she responded, barely able to form an answer.

Jughead nodded in appreciation. It had been a long time since somebody he had barely known had gone out of their way to help him.

"Thanks," Jughead replied.

He wasn't totally sure he was going to accept the help. But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like his only option.

 **Author's Note: Thanks for reading! This chapter I introduced two new characters: Toni Topaz and Penny Peabody. For anybody who doesn't know, these two character will be appearing in Riverdale Season 2, so I thought that I would include them in this story. If you have any feedback, feel free to let me know.**


	17. Chapter 17

Archie and Jughead were sitting in the Andrews' living room, fixated on the video game that flashed across the screen. It had been a while since they had hung out together as friends, and with all the drama that had happened, they needed something like this to keep them sane.

Despite the obvious need for the two friends to hang out like they used to, Archie asked Jughead over for another reason. Jughead wasn't completely unaware of this, as this invitation arose completely out of the blue.

Archie sighed as he put the video game controller beside him when the round concluded and "game over" appeared in bright flashing letters on the screen. Jughead had won the game for probably the fifteenth time they had played it, which was the opposite of what usually happened when they played video games.

"Damn Andrews, I guess today really isn't your day," Jughead said lightheartedly. Archie couldn't help but notice a slight uneasiness in his tone. "But I'm really starting to doubt that asked me here just to hang out and play video games."

Archie paused as he processed Jughead's words.

"You're right," Archie conceded. "It's about Betty."

Jughead nodded as he continued to listen.

"That night at the school really freaked me out, Jughead. I've known Betty for at least half my life and I've never seen her act that way before," Archie said.

"It surprised me too," Jughead replied. "I've been trying to talk to her, and she has been talking to me about it too, but at this point I'm not really sure what to do. I don't know how to help her anymore."

"Just promise me you'll look after her, okay," Archie said, picking up the controller and setting up the next round. Suddenly, he didn't want to talk about this anymore. It made him realize how much he wanted to be in Jughead's shoes. It made him realize how much he wanted to be the one to take care of Betty. After all, he and Betty had been friends for years.

"You know me, Archie. Of course I will," Jughead replied. "But I'm starting to think that I can't give her the help she needs. Maybe she needs to see a professional."

"A professional? I don't know, man. Doesn't that seem a little extreme? She just needs somebody to support her more. To be there for her," Archie said.

Jughead looked down at his controller, trying to figure out how to respond. Was Archie seriously trying to tell him that he wasn't a good boyfriend?

"I'm not sure what you're implying," Jughead said, taking his attention off the tv screen, looking Archie straight in the eye.

"It's nothing," Archie said, continuing the video game.

"No, Archie, if you have something to say, then say it," Jughead said calmly.

After a long pause, Archie finally turned his attention away from the tv and spoke.

"I just think that Betty deserves a little more support," Archie said.

"I've done what I can," Jughead said, his voice slightly getting louder. "She was on the verge of shooting somebody for god's sake!"

"A few weeks ago you decided to go run off and join the serpents behind her back. How's that for support?" Archie said angrily.

"I did that to protect her," Jughead said as he stood up from the couch. "I don't know why you're doing this, Archie, but I'm going to leave before one of us says something that we'll regret."

"I'm doing this to protect her, too," Archie argued.

Jughead paused, letting that comment sink in.

"I'd never thought that I would be saying this, and trust me, I'd be the last person to say something as arrogant as this," Jughead said. "But I'm starting to think that you're jealous of me and my relationship with Betty."

Archie looked back at Jughead, unsure of how to answer. When he offered up no response, it confirmed Jughead's suspicions, and with that knowledge Jughead left the room without turning back.

XXX

"Jughead?" Betty's voice rang in Jughead's ear, who was sitting on his own bed with his face resting in his hands. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jughead said, attempting a smile as he looked back at her. "I've just been a little distracted lately.

This was one of the few times that Betty had been in Jughead's room since he had moved in with his foster family. She hadn't really gotten to know his foster family very much, as they both worked during the day. Nevertheless, from what Jughead had told her, they seemed like a wonderful family.

"Do you want to go out tomorrow and do something?" Betty asked as she fiddled around with Jughead's new desk, which was already covered with a mess of papers.

"I really want to," Jughead said. "But I actually have something I have to do tomorrow."

"Oh," Betty said, slightly disappointed. "That's okay."

"I promise we can do something the next day," Jughead said.

"Okay," Betty replied. "What's the important thing you have to do tomorrow anyways?"

"It has to do with my dad," Jughead explained. He couldn't lie to her. "I think I might have found a solution to get him out of jail."

"Really? That's great, Juggie! What's the plan?"

Jughead paused for a moment, contemplating whether he should tell her about the whole Penny Peabody situation. He really didn't want to lie to her, but he also didn't want to get her involved. The situation seemed a little risky and he didn't want to put her in any danger.

"I'm meeting with another lawyer," Jughead said. "With her help, I might really have a shot at getting my dad out soon."

"Let's hope she can," Betty said, overcome with happiness at the thought of Jughead finally getting his dad out of jail. "Who is this lawyer anyways?"

"Uh," Jughead stalled, but then decided to tell Betty the truth. He couldn't lie to her anymore. "It's Penny Peabody. She's a popular lawyer for people on the Southside."

"That sounds great, Jughead. But I thought you told me that you couldn't afford a lawyer other than the one they gave your dad for free."

"Well, the thing is, Penny Peabody's doesn't expect payments in the general sense. She has her clients run errands for her or make deliveries, that sort of thing," Jughead explained.

"Are you sure about this?" Betty asked cautiously. She didn't want to disappoint Jughead, but at the mention of the lawyer not requesting money, the whole situation began to seem a little odd.

"What option do I have?" Jughead asked.

Betty nodded.

"I guess you're right. But Jughead," Betty began. "You're taking me with you. There's no way I'm letting you step into a potentially dangerous situation alone."

"Betty-" Jughead began to protest. If the situation did end up being dangerous, he wanted Betty to be as far away as possible.

"No, Jughead. I'm coming with you."

 **Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed. I just want to let everyone know that due to my schedule next week, I will not be able to post a chapter. I hope that doesn't disappoint anyone, and don't worry, I will get back to my regular schedule after that week.**


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